Help keep Salon independent

Topic: abiogenesis

Golden sun rays beaming through white clouds (Getty Images)

Water existed before the sun, study says

Nicole Karlis
Chain of amino acid or bio molecules called protein (Getty Images/Christoph Burgstedt)

The alphabet soup of ancient life

Troy Farah
Dawn light shining on the tidepools (Getty Images)

How life emerged from lifelessness

Matthew Rozsa
This is an artist's concept of a plume of water vapor thought to be ejected off the frigid, icy surface of the Jovian moon Europa, located about 500 million miles (800 million kilometers) from the sun. Spectroscopic measurements from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope led scientists to calculate that the plume rises to an altitude of 125 miles (201 kilometers) and then it probably rains frost back onto the moon's surface. Previous findings already pointed to a subsurface ocean under Europa's icy crust. (NASA/ESA/K. Retherford/SWRI)

Jupiter's moon Europa teems with water

Nicole Karlis
Advertisement: