Life on Mars? It's a question of chemical combinations

Recent simulations published in Communications Earth & Environment and led by Aditya Khuller of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena suggest that the right combination of ice and dust on the surface of Mars could create a suitable habitat for photosynthetic life forms. Although these simulations do not confirm the current or past presence of […]

From Sardinia on the hunt for aliens

The international SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) programme recently involved the Sardinia Radio Telescope, equipped with a 64-metre diameter dish, to explore the central region of our galaxy in search of possible technological signals from alien civilisations. The initial results, which will be published in the journal Acta Astronautica, were presented […]

The snowplough star that unveils the mysteries of Betelgeuse

The anomalous behaviour of the famous supergiant star Betelgeuse, which has kept hundreds of scholars busy for decades, could be explained by the presence of a companion star that has remained invisible until now, obscured by the enormous brightness of the star itself. This hypothesis is put forward in a study soon to be published in The Astrophysical Journal, led by the Centre for Astrophysics [...].