The moment of first contact with extraterrestrials is a staple of science fiction. It usually involves a frantic scientist having a Eureka moment, realising in a single dramatic instant that Earth is ...

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, ...

For generations, artists and science-fiction writers have imagined alien landscapes beneath twin sunsets. The image became iconic in popular culture long before astronomers confirmed that planets ...

Scientists are listening in on sperm whale conversations and studying Earth's strangest microbes to prepare humanity for first contact with extraterrestrial life.

With the release of Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s new film about aliens, a question as old as science fiction itself ...