I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS initiative and the Lunar & Planetary Institute — for almost eight years. But the run came to an end in October. Now an archive of the more than 400 columns is easily available at http://www.manyworlds.space. The stories focus … Continue reading "Many Worlds Archive is Available"

In a solar system far, far away, life of some sort is just waiting to be found.  Or so the world of astrobiology sure hopes it is. The new player in the astrobiology world, now called the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), is planned to launch in the 2040s if all goes well.  While it’s possible … Continue reading "Preparing For The Habitable Worlds Observatory, Our Best Shot at Finding ET Life"

Beware easy answers to the question of whether life exists beyond Earth. Be they “alien” skeletons in Mexico City, interstellar probes that briefly pass through our solar system, UFOs of all sorts and claims to have found “biosignature” chemical byproducts of life around planets where many other factors say that life cannot exist — their … Continue reading "A Real ET Discovery With Promise, Amid Some Other Quite Questionable Claims"

Bits of pebbles and dust from the asteriod Bennu that were collected during the long journey of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft should be landing in the Utah desert later this month. The delivery will be a first for NASA — its first sample return from an asteroid and one of a very small handful of space … Continue reading "After Seven Years Away Exploring an Asteroid, OSIRIS-REx is Landing Soon with Precious Samples"

An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon this month and a pioneering Japanese lunar  lander is awaiting an imminent launch.  A Russian craft trying to land in the same area — the southern polar region — recently crashed, as did a private effort by a joint Japanese-United Arab Emirates group and one by several Israeli … Continue reading "The Moon Rush Is On. Are We on Earth Ready For That?"