Life keeps looking possible in places we wrote off as dead.

What's surfacing

• 01

  Microbes Grow in Mars Brine

  A salt-loving Earth microbe grew for months in Mars-like brine, which points the search for life below the surface.

  1 story
• 02

  An Ocean World Fits a Microbe

  A methane-producing microbe grew in Enceladus-like ocean water, making life there chemically plausible.

  1 story
• 03

  Mars May Still Be Active

  Hydrogen chloride repeatedly detected over Alba Mons suggests volcanic activity under a surface thought to be quiet.

  1 story
• 04

  Even the Clouds Break the Rules

  Mars's giant Arsia Mons cloud may grow ice without the dust seeds Earth clouds need, another place the red planet works differently than assumed.

  1 story

Signals found

1. Nov 5Thursday

   • A salt-loving Earth microbe grew for months in Mars-like brine, shifting the search for life below the surface.The experiment shows that one salt-loving Earth organism can actively grow under a carefully selected combination of Mars-like stresses.6 sources
   • A methane-producing Earth microbe grew in Enceladus-like ocean water.The experiment makes methanogenesis on Enceladus chemically plausible, but it is a controlled test of one Earth archaeon, not a detection of extraterrestrial biology.6 sources
   • Mars’s giant Arsia Mons cloud may grow ice without the dust seeds Earth clouds usually need.Air flowing over Arsia Mons rises, cools, and creates a narrow, exceptionally supersaturated region.7 sources
   • An orbiter finds hydrogen chloride near Mars’s giant Alba Mons volcano, hinting at volcanic activity.The strongest ordinary reading is a genuine and unusual atmospheric signal that merits investigation, not a confirmed eruption.8 sources

Sources (28)

• Enceladus-like geochemistry fuels methanogenesis under extreme CO2 limitation | Science Advancesscience.org · A methane-producing Earth microbe grew in Enceladus-like ocean water.Journal · peer-reviewed
• Biological methane production under putative Enceladus-like conditions | Nature Communicationsnature.com · A methane-producing Earth microbe grew in Enceladus-like ocean water.Journal · peer-reviewed
• Bayesian analysis of Enceladus’s plume data to assess methanogenesis | Nature Astronomynature.com · A methane-producing Earth microbe grew in Enceladus-like ocean water.Journal · peer-reviewed
• Chemical Fractionation Modeling of Plumes Indicates a Gas-rich, Moderately Alkaline Enceladus Ocean - IOPscienceiopscience.iop.org · A methane-producing Earth microbe grew in Enceladus-like ocean water.Journal · peer-reviewed
• Instantaneous Habitable Windows in the Parameter Space of Enceladus' Oceandoi.org · A methane-producing Earth microbe grew in Enceladus-like ocean water.Journal · peer-reviewed
• Subsurface Life on Earth as a Key to Unlock Extraterrestrial Mysteries - PMCpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · A salt-loving Earth microbe grew for months in Mars-like brine, shifting the search for life below the surface.Journal · peer-reviewed
• Life Detection in the Martian Subsurface: Advancements in Microbial Metabolic Research under Mars Laboratory and Field-Analog Conditions since Vikingdoi.org · A salt-loving Earth microbe grew for months in Mars-like brine, shifting the search for life below the surface.Journal · peer-reviewed
• Homogeneous ice nucleation from water vapour suggested by elongated clouds on Mars | Nature Geosciencenature.com · Mars’s giant Arsia Mons cloud may grow ice without the dust seeds Earth clouds usually need.Journal · peer-reviewed
• ESA - Mars’s oddest cloud may be even odder than we thoughtesa.int · Mars’s giant Arsia Mons cloud may grow ice without the dust seeds Earth clouds usually need.Institution
• Homogeneous nucleation on Mars. An unexpected process that deciphers mysterious elongated cloudsdoi.org · Mars’s giant Arsia Mons cloud may grow ice without the dust seeds Earth clouds usually need.Journal · peer-reviewed
• Enigmatic HCl detections as a potential signature of igneous activity on Mars | Science Advancesscience.org · An orbiter finds hydrogen chloride near Mars’s giant Alba Mons volcano, hinting at volcanic activity.Journal · peer-reviewed
• European orbiter detects hints of volcanic activity on Mars | University of Oxford Department of Physicsphysics.ox.ac.uk · An orbiter finds hydrogen chloride near Mars’s giant Alba Mons volcano, hinting at volcanic activity.Institution