The sun is having hot flashes again. NASA reported that on June 7 a "dramatic solar flare" was flung out into space.¹ Such flares release particles that can collide with earth's atmosphere and cause the phenomenon known as "northern lights." What protects life on earth from this very harmful stream of radiation?

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, or SETI, was founded in 1984 to detect signals from faraway alien beings. The National Science Foundation and the State of California are among SETI's major supporters, but in the current economic climate monies are becoming increasingly scarce. That raises the question: Is SETI's mission important enough to keep it going?

Has alien life really been found on a meteorite?

A recent title in Nature News provides a succinct answer: "The aliens haven't landed."¹ The article offered a sweeping refutation of NASA scientist Richard Hoover's claim that extraterrestrial microscopic bacteria fossils were found in a carbonaceous meteorite.

Comets continue to confound cosmologists, who often assert that the small celestial bodies came from the “Oort Cloud,” a theoretical group of planetary leftovers that supposedly orbits the solar system.

A number of factors are required for life to exist--the presence of water, sustainable atmosphere, and appropriate temperature ranges, just to name a few. How many of these requirements should be observed in a distant planet in order for a serious scientist to claim that life there is a sure thing?

Just one, according to a University of California Santa Cruz astronomer.