News Extra Terrestiral Life 20-NOV-09 en-us Italy, Vatican City (UPI) Nov 11, 2009 - A top astronomer has told a conference in Vatican City the belief that life exists in other parts of the universe "does not clash" with Catholicism.]]> Moffett Field CA (SPX) Nov 09, 2009 - NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidine exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces this essential ingredient of life.]]> Moffett Field CA (SPX) Oct 27, 2009 - Forty years ago, the Apollo astronauts traipsed across our Moon, making it "inhabited" for the first time - albeit for only two and half hours. A bona-fide habitable moon has never been found, but astronomers are considering how we might find one around distant stars.]]> Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 21, 2009 - Peering far beyond our solar system, NASA researchers have detected the basic chemistry for life in a second hot gas planet, advancing astronomers toward the goal of being able to characterize planets where life could exist. The planet is not habitable but it has the same chemistry that, if found around a rocky planet in the future, could indicate the presence of life.]]> Moffett Field CA (SPX) Oct 07, 2009 - A new study by the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo shows the first quantitative evaluation of planetary habitability. The study identifies some potential habitats in the solar system and also shows how the habitability of our planet has changed in the past, with some periods being even better than today.]]> Moffett Field CA (SPX) Sep 22, 2009 - They're body snatchers invading human bodies and taking over society; they're E.T. and The Man Who Fell to Earth trying desperately to get home. They're a malign new crustacean life form with multiple sets of acid-drooling jaws that uses our bodies as incubators, vessels to spread its population throughout the galaxy.]]> Potsdam, Germany (SPX) Sep 23, 2009 - Scientists at a new interdisciplinary research group in Austria are working to uncover how life might evolve with "exotic" biochemistry and solvents, such as sulfuric acid instead of water. Their research will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Johannes Leitner.]]> Moffett Field CA (SPX) Sep 21, 2009 - Molecules vital to life have been detected in outer space and isolated in meteorites and comets. Some of this material that rained down on Earth may have jump-started biology. If so, these space seeds also may have planted a particular molecular orientation, or "handedness," that spread to the world's first creatures. New research is studying how this handedness could arise in space.]]> Potsdam, Germany (SPX) Sep 21, 2009 - Researchers from the Open University are laying the groundwork for a new equation that could mathematically quantify a habitat's potential for hosting life, in a similar way to how the Drake equation estimates the number of intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way.]]> Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 16, 2009 - There are so many stars in our galaxy that even if planets with complex life (animals and plants) are rare - say one for every billion stars - there could still be dozens here in the Milky Way. But we are just beginning to learn about worlds beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, so we really don't have a good idea of what the chances are for advanced life. That's where NASA's Kepler mission comes in.]]>