Meteorites delivering life’s molecules and robots that can traverse alien sand

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - If you want to find extraterrestrial intelligence, you're going to have to look in the right place. In our galaxy alone there are more than 100 billion stars, so you might expect to find a profusion of alien abodes. But which suns do you point your telescope at? Bright, yellow stars like our own Sun have always seemed the obvious place to start. In the past few years, though, researchers have begun to wonder if they've been neglecting a whole class of likely targets: red dwarfs. See article. Note: This article is from 1999.
g Life - NASA scientists studying dust from meteorites have uncovered clues about how life works on its most basic, molecular level. The study shows that biological molecules created in space and delivered to Earth by meteorites may have had a profound effect on the development of life. See article.
g Cosmicus - Robotic explorers are used to study the Earth's most difficult terrain, and they also play a major role in the exploration of our solar system. Now, scientists have provided detailed recommendations for building robots that can traverse sand and other granular surfaces. The study could aid in the future exploration of environments like Mars. See article.

Get your SF book manuscript edited