Can scientists detect life without knowing what it looks like? Research using machine learning offers a new way

An illustration shows an ultra short period planet with a traile of gas and dust following it.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

When NASA scientists opened the sample return canister from the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample mission in late 2023, they found something astonishing.