What drives us to send probes throughout the solar system and rovers and landers to Mars? It's not cheap, and it's not easy.

So why do so many life-forms breathe oxygen? There are probably thousands of kinds of metabolisms, or chemical processes that ...

Large soda lakes may have provided the high phosphorus levels needed for life to begin on Earth, offering a new explanation ...

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has detected the largest organic (carbon-containing) molecules ever found on the red planet. The ...

Along with nitrogen and carbon, phosphorus is an essential element for life on Earth. It is a central component of molecules ...

New research sheds light on the earliest days of the earth's formation and potentially calls into question some earlier assumptions in planetary science about the early years of rocky planets.

In "Ends of the Earth," Neil Shubin travels north and south to explore the frontiers of polar science and history.

A new approach to estimating the likelihood of life on Venus has been proposed by researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center, ...

Ancient oceans, which were heavy on iron, interacted differently with light wavelengths, retracting green light into the ...

Deep below Earth’s surface, rock and mineral formations lay hidden with a secret brilliance. Under a black light, the ...

New research suggests “microlightning” exchanges among water droplets in Earth’s early atmosphere may have sparked the ...