NASA Seeks To Answer Age-Old Question: Does Life Exist Beyond Earth?

Perseverance rover concept
The Perseverance rover is designed to use the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) X-ray spectrometer to search for signs of ancient microbial life in rocks.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
In 2006, Abigail Allwood, then a graduate student studying Earth science at Macquarie University in Sydney, published a paper suggesting that cone-shaped structures in a 3.5-billion-year-old rock formation in Western Australia were biological, the fossilized remains of ancient microorganisms. Not...

NASA Seeks To Answer Age-Old Question: Does Life Exist Beyond Earth? is available to both Aviation Week & Space Technology and AWIN subscribers.

Subscribe now to read this content, plus receive critical analysis into emerging trends, technological advancements, operational best practices and continuous updates to policy, requirements and budgets.

Already a subscriber to AW&ST or AWIN? Log in with your existing email and password.