It’s a sweltering Tuesday in Washington, D.C., the kind of day that stretches the definition of Earth as a “habitable” planet. But on an eighth-floor terrace near the U.S. Capitol building, dozens of ...

Planets that once lived only in pulp novels and movie concept art are now turning up in real data. Astronomers are not just finding distant worlds, they are cataloguing places with molten surfaces, ...

The curious minds at What If imagine landing alive on the alien world Kepler-22b, exploring surface conditions, atmosphere, and potential life.

Movile Cave in Romania has evolved independently since it was cut off from the air and sunlight 5.5 million years ago. Its extreme environment seems inhospitable to most life on Earth. Yet, this place ...

Add independent.com on Google Add the SB Independent as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Since their initial discovery 30 years ago, exoplanets have revolutionized our ideas ...