Over the past several decades, there’s been a stunning revolution in how we view the prospect of life on other planets. Starting with the Voyager missions in the 1970s, it became clear that the Solar System had a number of bodies that were geologically active. Evidence for oceans of liquid water and hints of Mars’ watery past soon followed. Meanwhile, back on Earth, we began to discover that life could survive in some extremely harsh conditions: high radioactivity, near-boiling water, even under blood-red ice in Antarctica. (via NASA Needs New Plan to Avoid Contaminating Other Worlds | Wired Science | Wired.com)

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