Researchers have proposed a new project for analyzing Martian soil samples -- the "Search for Extraterrestrial Genomes" based on the theory that life on Mars – if there is any – may be composed of "island species" that were carried away from Earth on interplanetary meteorites.

A scientific team working at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has come up with a technique for detecting life elsewhere in the universe by using spaceborne instruments to detect a preponderance of molecules that have a certain “chirality,” or handedness.

Tantalising traces of the building blocks of life have been spotted in nearby galaxies. However, working out the identity of these carbon-containing molecules, and when they became abundant, is proving tricky, say astronomers.

Google has struck a partnership with scientists building a huge sky-scanning telescope, with hopes of helping the public access digital footage of asteroids, supernovas and distant galaxies.

Researchers have released a list of the top five potential habstars in our galaxy, three of which can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.

An autonomous robot has found life in one of the most lifeless places on Earth: the Atacama desert in northern Chile, thought to be a close analogue of Mars's arid surface.

An interview with Dr. Michio Kaku on the physics of extra-terrestrial civilizations, and whether we can classify their evolution judging from our own work in progress.

The building blocks of life pervade the solar system, and probably the universe, locked up in planetary polar ice caps, crouching in the interstices of ancient volcanic rocks, zooming around on comets and meteorites, drifting between galaxies in interstellar space, or wafting gently down in cosmic dust.

One tenth of the stars in our galaxy might provide the right conditions to support complex life, according to a new analysis by Australian researchers. And most of these stars are on average one billion years older than the Sun, allowing much more time, in theory, for any life to evolve.

The latest attempt to work out how much alien life is out there suggests there may be a lot more than most people thought. According to a new statistical analysis based on how quickly life got going on Earth, life will start on at least a third of Earth-like planets within a billion years of them developing suitable conditions. And with recent discoveries that planets are common around Sun-like stars, there's probably no shortage of prospective homes.