Earliest life purple and the solar system’s future

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Observations of distant stars tell us about our own future. Roughly 5 billion years from now, the Sun will begin to swell as a red giant, and the solar system will be transformed into a very different place. See article.
g Abodes - A team of NASA and university scientists has achieved the first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars. This discovery indicates the planet is either biologically or geologically active. See article.
g Life - The earliest life on Earth might have been just as purple as it is green today, a scientist claims. See article.
g Cosmicus - Laser-induced fluorescence emission techniques enable ground and remote sensing of photosynthetic microorganisms living in the snow and ice. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat Web site that offers a variety of book, video and Web resources for teaching about space and astrobiology.
g Aftermath - Freelance writer Mark Pendergrast examines the folly of the Anthropic Principle in a newspaper op-ed. See essay.

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