Cosmic Evolution

The origin of carbon, an element essential to life on Earth, in the Milky Way galaxy is still debated among astrophysicists.

The next generation of powerful Earth- and space-based telescopes will be able to hunt distant solar systems for evidence of life on Earth-like exoplanets – particularly those that chaperone burned-out stars known as white dwarfs.

Astrobiology Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Helen Matsos, sits down in conversation with Ann Druyan, writer and Executive Producer of "Cosmos: Possible. Worlds".

To help answer one of the great existential questions - how did life begin? - a new study combines biological and cosmological models. It reveals life in the universe could be common, but not in our neighborhood

New astronomy research from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) suggests giant planets could form around small stars much faster than previously thought. As published in today’s Astronomy and Astrophysics journal, Dr. Anthony Mercer and Dr. Dimitris Stamatellos’ new planet formation research challenges our understanding

Astronomers have identified where molecules containing phosphorus form, how this element is carried in comets, and how a particular molecule may have played a crucial role in starting life on our planet.

Researchers unveil the possible origins of our cosmic neighborhood’s “Great Divide.” This well-known schism may have separated the solar system just after the sun first formed.

Roughly a hundred of very red, star-like sources have appeared and vanished in short period of time. Researchers are taking extra-terrestrial sources into account.

New research by Kent astrophysicists reveals vital clues about the role recycling plays in the formation of life in our universe.

An experiment shows that one of the basic units of life -- nucleobases -- could have originated within giant gas clouds interspersed between the stars.