For decades, scientists have searched the universe for signs of life beyond Earth. While distant exoplanets often grab the headlines, one of the most promising places may be much closer than we think.

When astronomers observe distant exoplanets, they sometimes encounter a frustrating result: instead of revealing the chemical fingerprints of an atmosphere, the data appear almost completely flat. Those flat spectra can make it difficult to determine whether clouds or haze are obscuring the atmosphere being observed.

We have no idea what kind of life may exist on other planets, so it’s hard to know what to look for. Proxima Kósmos imagines a very different kind of solar system that could harbor life-forms we haven’t yet thought of. If life exists elsewhere in the ...

The science fiction genre is home to many fascinating, terrifying, and breathtaking worlds that stretch the limits of imagination, from the hive of scum and villainy that is Tatooine in Star Wars to the lush, Earth-like exomoon of Pandora in Avatar.