A new research article sheds light on another way that supernovae support life. Supernova activity in Earth’s neighbourhood may have led to more oxygen in the atmosphere. And oxygen is necessary for complex life.
A simple compound called diamidophosphate (DAP), which was plausibly present on Earth before life arose, could have chemically knitted together tiny DNA building blocks called deoxynucleosides into strands of primordial DNA.
The Austrian researchers are the first in the world to demonstrate 'YeiN', an enzyme that is a suitable biocatalyst for the production of C-nucleosides, the basic building blocks of RNA.
NASA scientists identified a molecule in Titan’s atmosphere that has never been detected in any other atmosphere - cyclopropenylidene, or C3H2. This simple molecule may be a precursor to possible life on Titan.
New research identifies a process that might have been key in producing the first organic molecules on Earth about 4 billion years ago, before the origin of life. The process may also have relevance to the life elsewhere in the universe.
Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is one of the last places we think about when considering the potential for life in the solar system. New research suggests the planet's interior once contained the basic ingredients for life.
It's calculated that, thanks to rapid inflation, the universe may contain more than 1 googol (10^100) stars, and if this is the case then more complex, life-sustaining RNA structures are more than just probable, they're practically inevitable.
The molecules were extracted by the Curiosity rover from a mudstone section of the Gale Crater. Scientists have concluded that we can't rule out those molecules actually have a biological origin.
A team of German scientists recently examined data gathered by the Cassini orbiter around Enceladus’ southern polar region and found was evidence of organic signatures that could be the building blocks for amino acids.
A new study by an international team of astronomers has discovered the presence of organic molecules in the disk of a young star V883 Ori, located about 1300 light-years away from the Earth.
According to the model of US researchers, the entire Milky Way (and even other galaxies) could be exchanging the components necessary for life.
Researchers have found among the first and perhaps only hard evidence that simple protein catalysts - essential for cells, the building blocks of life, to function - may have existed when life began.
Could the building blocks for life on Earth have been delivered by meteorites crashing into ponds of water 4 billion years ago?
A discovery on Saturn's Moon Titan could be an indication of how life begins to emerge throughout the Universe.
Two teams of researchers reported they have detected a prebiotic molecule—a potential building block of life—around newly formed sunlike stars.
