--- title: Life in Space: It's There description: Cosmic biology may not just be likely, but inevitable canonical: https://time.com/4234106/life-in-space/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-04T01:45:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:49.585Z article:section: Science og:title: Why There's No Denying Life in Space og:description: Cosmic biology may not just be possible, but inevitable og:url: https://time.com/4234106/life-in-space/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd432cfe72442fae6/69887ebebc6cfc3df53dbdb1/space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: Anyone out there? Oh yeah, more than you think og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why There's No Denying Life in Space twitter:description: Cosmic biology may not just be possible, but inevitable twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd432cfe72442fae6/69887ebebc6cfc3df53dbdb1/space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Yes, There Is Life in Space—Deal With It > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=21215531-a2b4-46dc-9d25-0364572d7dd8&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: What Killed the Red Planet? [Watch (HLS stream): What Killed the Red Planet?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BXO141LC.m3u8) (1:53)  _Published 2015-11-05. What Killed the Red Planet?_  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 4, 2016 1:45 AM UTC  Anyone out there? Oh yeah, more than you think Anyone out there? Oh yeah, more than you think NASA, ESA  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 4, 2016 1:45 AM UTC No one has ever discovered life in space, and given the enormity of the universe and our tiny, modest place in it, it’s entirely possible no one will—either in our lifetimes or for many lifetimes to come. But never mind, because life is out there—indeed, it’s everywhere, simply because chemically and mathematically it _has_ to be there. That’s increasingly the view of investigators studying the science of exobiology—also known as astrobiology, also known as just plain ET. There’s good reason for that kind of investigatory optimism. Water, we now know, is everywhere in the cosmos, on planets and moons, in the matrix of asteroids, swirling through interstellar space itself. Hydrocarbons—the basic molecular stuff of life—are ubiquitous too, as are more complex amino acids.  And while we once knew of only the eight planets in our own solar system, in just the past 20 years, scientists have discovered thousands more orbiting other stars in our galaxy. Our sun is just one of those 300 billion stars, and there are perhaps 100 billion more galaxies in the universe. That’s not a sample group of infinity, but it’s a huge one all the same. If biological chemistry is everywhere and the planets on which it could play out are as well, there’s little reason to believe the magic would happen only on Earth. “The universe is hardwired to be an organic chemist,” Scott Sandford, an astrobiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center near Silicon Valley, told me [for a story in a recent issue of TIME](http://time.com/4217034/the-perfectly-sane-case-for-life-in-space/). “It’s not a very clean or tidy one, but it has really big beakers and plenty of time.” Not everyone agrees with that view, but like it or not, it’s becoming—if it hasn’t already become—the majority position. What do you think? Weigh in on Twitter with your thoughts and questions and I’ll discuss them on the next episode of my new Time podcast, [_It’s Your Universe_](http://time.com/its-your-universe/), (available on iTunes and Stitcher), which each week takes you on a tour of a new destination in our solar system. We’ve so far visited Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. On Thursday, March 10, we’ll stop and consider the case for life in the cosmos at large. ## Transcript [00:02] This is the Mars we know. A cold, dead planet with only [00:06] traces of salty water on its slopes. But the Mars of the past [00:10] had oceans, seas, and flowing rivers. What happened? [00:17] Scientists know that water sticks around as long as the [00:20] atmosphere does. In the case of Mars, the atmosphere is [00:23] only one percent as dense as Earth's. That means that [00:27] whatever destroyed Mars' air is what dried out the red [00:30] planet too. [ MUSIC ] Researchers [00:36] have known for a while that the same heavy meteorite [00:39] bombardment that pounded Earth also blasted Mars. But [00:43] unlike Earth, Mars' weak gravity couldn't keep a firm grasp [00:47] on its atmosphere. [ MUSIC ] [00:52] That's only part of the story however. In March of 2015, [00:56] NASA's MAVEN spacecraft recorded two massive solar [01:00] storms that clobbered the red planet. The storms also gave [01:04] researchers the evidence they needed to help solve the [01:07] atmosphere mystery. The storms are called Coronal [01:11] Mass Ejections, or CMEs. Earth's [01:17] powerful magnetic field deflects these storms and protects [01:21] its atmosphere But when a CME hits Mars the solar [01:25] energy scours some of the remaining atmosphere away [01:29] and the stream of energy from Mar's weak magnetic field [01:32] sends carbon dioxide molecules, molecular oxygen, and [01:36] atomic oxygen into space. In other words, each time [01:41] a storm strikes, Mars loses a little bit of its air. And over [01:45] hundreds of millions of years, Mars' atmosphere really [01:48] didn't stand a chance. 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