exit to the cosmic rest stop

A bento box of biosignatures

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! This week, we’re exploring one of the biggest mysteries in science: What the heck even is life anyway? Answering this question here on Earth is kind of important if we hope to find alien life elsewhere in the universe. There are

Interstellar ghost ships on the horizon

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! Say goodbye to the solar system, because we are sailing the interstellar seas today.  For this week’s file, I wanted to highlight two unrelated studies that came this week about interstellar objects—only this time, they are homegrown. Interstellar objects have

Who wants to be an extraterrestrial spelunker?

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! Get your headlamps and harnesses ready, because today we are caving on alien worlds.  For WIRED, I covered the thriving field of planetary caves. These subterranean spaces on planetary bodies are among the most promising places to search for alien life—and

The Right Stuff, Right Now

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! Quick, clean up your messes and put on your Friday finest, because the Artemis II astronauts are returning to Earth tonight. Assuming all goes to plan, the Artemis II Orion capsule will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, deploy its parachutes, and splashdown in

Artemis II and the Space Goslings

Thanks for tuning into the BeX Files! We are t-minus one week for a possible return to the Moon, so strap in for launch.  After years of stops and starts, NASA’s Artemis II mission may actually blast off from Earth in mere days, with the earliest launch window currently

Project Hail Mary will fist your bump

Welcome back to the BeX Files! Grab some exploded kernels and sugar water because we’re going to the movies this week. The file today welcomes Project Hail Mary, the newly released space flick starring Ryan Gosling about humans, aliens, stars, and the surprising versatility of Ramen noodles. Since I

What’s in Those UAP Files Anyway? Plus, A Space Centennial

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! Happy Friday the 13th and Pi Day Eve to all who observe. May the math be especially irrational and spooky today. This week’s file is about real files! For WIRED, I wrote about Donald Trump’s announcement last month that the

A search for aliens that's made in the shade

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! There’s no place like home, so the saying goes, but given the immensity of the universe, there are probably a lot of planets that are kind of like our home world, Earth. In a new study for Nature Astronomy, scientists present

Does this Grainy Footage Reveal an Extraterrestrial Spaceship?

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! And what a banner month it has been for alien lovers. Before I get into the new presidential phase of alien mania, I wanted to share a story about the possible discovery of an actual extraterrestrial spacecraft—one of our own.  I’

The allure of alien geysers

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! Pack your space-swimsuit and get ready to splash, because this week we’re running through some extraterrestrial sprinklers.  There are worlds in our solar system, like Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Neptune's moon Triton, that are constantly squirting alien seawater

To the habitable zone—and beyond!

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! This Friday, it’s time to get in the zone—the habitable one, preferably, because I hear the alternative is literally unlivable. As I cover in First Contact, the idea that there might be a region around stars that is most conducive

The science behind the search for alien artifacts

Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! Get out your cosmic metal detectors, because this week we return to the tantalizing topic of alien artifacts.  As I wrote in a previous file on xenoarchaeology, few alien tropes are more compelling than the prospect of discovering the material remnants of