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Jupiter’s moon Europa probably holds about twice as much liquid water as all of Earth’s oceans. Juno has now measured the ice above it, and Europa Clipper arrives in 2030 to ask whether that ocean could support life.
A rock in an ancient Martian river valley carries chemical patterns that, on Earth, are usually made by microbes. NASA calls it a potential biosignature. The sample that could settle it may never come home.
Half a millimeter long and found almost everywhere, tardigrades can survive drying, freezing, radiation and even the vacuum of space. They are not indestructible. Their tricks are more interesting than that.