News Briefs

Stanford Biology Professor Rodolfo Dirzo and his colleagues warn that this "defaunation" could have harmful downstream effects on human health.

To learn more about hazy exoplanet atmospheres, scientists simulated a transit of Saturn's moon Titan across the face of our own sun.

Surface structures are becoming visible in new images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by the Rosetta spacecraft.

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the sun -- and have come up nearly dry.

The size of the exoplanet Kepler-93b is now known to an uncertainty of just 74 miles (119 kilometers) on either side of the planetary body.

Better Markers of Life on the Horizon.

In a new study, two Voyager team scientists are proposing a test that they say could prove once and for all of Voyager 1 has crossed the boundary.

Astrobiologists have outlined how geochemistry and metabolism are connected in the microbial ecosystem of the deep subsurface beneath Spain’s Rio Tinto region.

Astronomers have discovered a transiting exoplanet with the longest known year. Kepler-421b circles its star once every 704 days.

Inside gas giants, carbon is crushed at pressures we could only imagine - that is, until the National Ignition Laboratory found a way to make it happen here on Earth.

New research shows the vital role of oceans in moderating climate on Earth-like planets.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has mapped more than 200 holes on the surface of the Moon.

The Chelyabinsk meteorite puts to rest a long-standing debate about the source of the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Because we live on the planet Earth, it's sometimes hard to gain some perspective about the visibility of life outside of our planet. An extraterrestrial spacecraft lurking in a satellite's orbit near Earth would be able to see city lights and pollution in our atmosphere.

Re-examination of birdlike fossil challenges common belief that birds evolved from ground-dwelling dinosaurs.