SETI Live

Join host Beth Johnson for a fascinating episode of SETI Live, featuring planetary scientists Dr Georgina Miles and Dr Carly Howett from the University of Oxford. We'll be unpacking their groundbreaking study showing that Enceladus — one of Saturn's icy moons — may harbor a stable subsurface ocean capable of supporting life. 📄 For more info: The study "Endogenic heat at Enceladus' north pole" has just been published in Science Advances: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx4338  Official press release from the University of Oxford: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-11-10-saturn-s-icy-moon-may-host-stable-ocean-fit-life-new-study-finds (Recorded live 20 November 2025.)

What happens when a planet is full of water—but too hot for oceans? Meet the "steam worlds," exotic exoplanets wrapped in thick water vapor and boiling at thousands of degrees. These strange worlds may be far from habitable, but they're reshaping how scientists think about planets, water, and where life might exist. In this episode of SETI Live, host Beth Johnson talks with Artem Aguichine of the University of California, Santa Cruz, about his new research modeling the interiors and atmospheres of steam worlds—a class of water-rich sub-Neptunes that could dominate our galaxy. With data from the JWST...

Join SETI Live host Moiya McTier with Néstor Espinoza (STScI) and Ana Glidden (MIT) for a deep dive into the latest JWST observations of TRAPPIST‑1 e, one of the most tantalizing Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of a nearby star. In this episode, we explore: 🛰 How JWST is peering into TRAPPIST-1 e's atmosphere (or lack thereof). 🔵 Why the planet almost certainly doesn't have a thick hydrogen envelope, ruling out a mini-Neptune-like world. 🪨 The emerging hints of a secondary, heavier atmosphere — or the possibility that it's a bare rock. ⭐️ The challenges posed by stellar activity and their implications for habitability...

Dr. Moiya McTier is an astrophysicist, folklorist, and science communicator in New York City who loves planets, galaxy evolution, her cat named Cosmo, and old stories about space. She is also the latest addition to our rotating cast of hosts for SETI Live! Join communications specialist Beth Johnson for an interview to introduce Moiya to the community. So please bring your questions and help us welcome her to the team! (Recorded live 3 November 2025.)

What happens when a visitor from another star system drops by? Join planetary astronomers Franck Marchis and Ariel Graykowski for a special SETI Live all about Comet 3I/ATLAS — only the third known interstellar object ever detected! Astronomers around the world, including citizen scientists in the Unistellar Network, are racing to learn as much as possible about this rare cosmic traveler. 3I/ATLAS is swinging through our neighborhood, reaching perihelion on October 30, 2025, just inside the orbit of Mars — a front-row seat for spacecraft like Lucy and Psyche. While it's currently hidden behind the Sun, it won't stay that way for...

Join host Beth Johnson on SETI Live as she talks with Dr. Eric Boyd from the University of Montana about a groundbreaking discovery: microbes that can breathe in two ways at once! These extraordinary bacteria simultaneously perform both aerobic (oxygen-based) and anaerobic (sulfur-based) respiration, challenging everything we thought we knew about cellular life. Discover how this incredible metabolic flexibility reshapes our understanding of life on Earth, inspires biotechnology innovations, and even informs the search for extraterrestrial life. 🔬 Featured Research: Quanta Magazine overview: https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cells-that-breathe-two-ways-20250723/  Original study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56418-4  Dr. Boyd...

Could Uranus's moon Ariel have once harbored a vast, deep ocean beneath its icy crust—perhaps even one that still lingers today? In this episode of SETI Live, host Beth Johnson welcomes Caleb Strom (University of North Dakota) and Alex Pathoff (Planetary Science Institute) to discuss new research revealing evidence that Ariel may have once held a subsurface ocean over 170 kilometers deep. Using geological mapping and tidal‐stress modeling, the team shows how ancient fractures and ridges on Ariel's surface hint at powerful internal forces and a dynamic, watery past. This discovery expands the growing family of "ocean worlds"—planet...

Join Beth Johnson for a thought-provoking conversation with Professor Dagomar Degroot, an environmental historian at Georgetown University. They delve into the themes of his new book, Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean, set to be released on October 28, 2025. Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean offers a sweeping history of human encounters with the solar system. Professor Degroot reimagines the solar system as a dynamic network of interconnected systems, exploring how cosmic events and environments have influenced human history and understanding. Drawing inspiration from James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, he treats the entire solar system as a network of interconnected systems of exchange...

Do Aliens Speak Physics?: And Other Questions about Science and the Nature of Reality (Whiteson & Warner, 2025) is a mind-bending exploration into what it would mean, scientifically and philosophically, for humans to communicate with an extraterrestrial intelligence through the language of physics. Daniel Whiteson, a particle physicist, and Andy Warner tackle deep questions: Are concepts like "number," "space," "time," and "laws of nature" universal, or are they shaped by our biology, culture, and perception? What assumptions do we make that might not translate to a species evolved under utterly different conditions? The book pushes us to examine where physics ends...

How do planets start? Host Simon Steel (SETI Institute) speaks with Melissa McClure (Leiden University), lead author of a new study that caught the earliest spark of planet formation. Using JWST and ALMA, the team detected silicon monoxide (SiO)—both gaseous and likely crystalline—and pinpointed where hot, rock-forming minerals are condensing inside the protoplanetary disk of HOPS-315, ~1300 light-years away in Orion. They also map the action to a belt-like region similar to our Solar System's asteroid belt. What does SiO reveal about shocks, heat, and the first solids that seed planets? Join us to unpack the chemistry, the phys...

The Sun is restless again! A massive coronal hole has opened up, sending streams of solar wind racing toward Earth. These high-speed particles not only light up our skies with dazzling auroras but can also affect satellites, power grids, and communications. In this special SETI Live, heliophysicist Dr. Becca Robinson (SETI Institute) joins host Simon Steel (Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute) to explain what coronal holes are, how they form, and what their impacts mean for both our technology and our understanding of the Sun. Join us on October 7 at 2:30 pm PT for...

Join host Beth Johnson and guest Dr. Sam Courville, lead author of a new study on Ceres, as they dive into the possibility that the dwarf planet may have had the energy needed to support habitability for much longer than once believed. Using data from NASA's Dawn mission, researchers uncovered evidence of persistent geologic activity, brine movement, and long-lived energy sources beneath Ceres' icy surface. Could this small world in the asteroid belt have been more habitable than we ever imagined? Press release: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-ceres-may-have-had-long-standing-energy-to-fuel-habitability/  Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt3283 (Recorded l...

Join host Dr. Franck Marchis and guest Dr. Andy Rivkin (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory) for a discussion on asteroid 2024 YR4 and its potential impact on the Moon. Thanks to new observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists have refined the asteroid's orbit and determined there is about a 4% chance it could strike the Moon in December 2032. While there is no risk to Earth, a lunar impact could create a crater nearly a kilometer wide and send debris into space—possibly affecting satellites or even producing a visible meteor shower. In this episode, we'll explore how JW...

What happens after we discover life beyond Earth? The question is no longer "if," but "when"—and how humanity responds could shape our future. Host and planetary astronomer Franck Marchis welcomes Martin Dominik, one of the authors of a new white paper on the societal, political, and philosophical challenges we'll face once alien life is confirmed. From public communication and policy to our collective sense of identity, this discussion explores how to prepare for the biggest discovery in human history. 📄 Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11587  📰 Universe Today article: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/scientists-are-planning-for-life-after-finding-aliens (Recorded 18 September 2025.)

Join communications specialist Beth Johnson and Dr. Charles-Édouard Boukaré (York University) as they dive into new research on molten rocky exoplanets—worlds so hot that their surfaces are oceans of magma. This international study, led by York University, sheds light on how these fiery planets form, evolve, and what their extreme environments can teach us about the diversity of planetary systems. From the physics of molten mantles to what telescopes like JWST might reveal about their atmospheres, we'll explore the cutting-edge science that's reshaping our understanding of exoplanets beyond our solar system. 📄 Learn more: Press release → https://www.yorku.ca...

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is a world of methane rivers and lakes, icy boulders, sandy dunes, and a vast subsurface ocean. Could this distant world harbor life? A new study led by Dr. Antonin Affholder, now a fellow at ETH Zurich, suggests that Titan's ocean might support life—but only in the tiniest amounts, making it incredibly hard to find. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she chats with Dr. Affholder to explore what this means for the search for life beyond Earth, why organics on Titan may not provide enough fuel, and how NASA's Dragonfly mission might help an...

Join us for a special livestream featuring Dr. Abel Méndez from the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, hosted by SETI Institute researcher Dr. Lauren Sgro. They will discuss the latest on LaserSETI, the all-sky project searching for optical technosignatures, including exciting updates from the new installation in Puerto Rico. This special "LaserSETI Live" will also dive into Méndez's new study on the legendary Wow! Signal, in which he and his team revisit one of the most intriguing mysteries in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence with fresh analysis and new insights. This event connects Puerto Rico's rich le...

Join us for a 30-minute livestream with Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute, and Dr. Sanne Bloot, lead author of a recent study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. They will discuss one of the universe's most puzzling new discoveries: a white dwarf that emits highly polarized radio pulses in a strange, patterned rhythm. (Recorded live 28 August 2025.)

Join communications specialist Beth Johnson for a conversation with Dr. Anastasia Yanchilina, Frank Drake Postdoctoral Fellow at the SETI Institute, as we explore how life might emerge and/or be mistaken for in environments beyond Earth. Dr. Yanchilla studies abiotic mineral structures, or "chemical gardens," that resemble biological life but form entirely through non-living processes. By recreating these systems under conditions similar to hydrothermal vents on ocean worlds such as Enceladus and Mars, she investigates how to distinguish between life and non-life, and what this means for the origin of life on Earth. We'll discuss how minerals, organics, and...

Join Dr. Franck Marchis, Director of Citizen Science at the SETI Institute, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Unistellar, and co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of SkyMapper, and Dr. Lauren Sgro, Outreach Manager at the SETI Institute, for a conversation on citizen science with the Unistellar network in partnership with the SETI Institute. We will talk about amateur astronomer observations of Comet 3I/ATLAS, a disintegrating exoplanet, asteroid (762) Pulcova, and the satellite Tanager. We will also answer your questions about our program from the Unistellar community page and discuss recent highlights. (Recorded live 14 August 2025.)

Join astronomers Franck Marchis (SETI Institute) and Julien Girard (Space Telescope Science Institute) for a 30-minute live discussion unpacking NASA's exciting new findings from JWST. Just announced, JWST has revealed strong evidence of a Saturn-mass gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A—the Sun's nearest solar twin—located just 4 light-years away. The planet appears to orbit at about 1 to 2 AU, placing it within the star's habitable zone, though as a gas giant, it's not likely habitable itself. (Recorded live 8 August 2025.)

Join us for a 30-minute live conversation with astronomer Dr. Rosemary E. Pike, lead author of a groundbreaking new study that reveals the discovery of a rare and distant object orbiting in resonance with Neptune. Hosted by Beth Johnson of the SETI Institute, this stream will explore the science behind this unusual trans-Neptunian object, what it tells us about the early solar system, and why its orbital alignment is so surprising. (Recorded live 7 August 2025.)

Join communications specialist Beth Johnson for a live interview with astrophysicist Marc Hon (MIT), lead author of a new study revealing one of the most extreme exoplanets ever discovered — a small, rocky world that's literally disintegrating as it orbits its star. BD+05 4868 b is a Mercury-sized planet just 140 light-years away that's orbiting so close to its star, it's roasting at around 1650°C. The heat is intense enough to vaporize the planet's rocky surface, creating a massive comet-like tail of mineral dust stretching millions of kilometers across space. This rare discovery — only the fourth known disintegrating planet — offers scientists an unprece...

Comets are cosmic time capsules, but some carry stories from far beyond our Solar System. Join us for a live discussion on Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object to visit our cosmic neighborhood. Host Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, will be joined by a panel of experts to explore what makes this comet unique, how scientists are studying it, and what its presence means for our understanding of planetary systems beyond our own.

Guests include:

Join planetary scientists Beth Johnson and Ian Pamerleau, lead author of a groundbreaking new Nature Astronomy study, for a deep dive into the icy mysteries of Ceres—the largest object in the asteroid belt and the only dwarf planet to be orbited by a spacecraft. While Ceres shows signs of an ice-rich interior, its heavily cratered surface doesn't behave like soft, ice-laden terrain. So what gives? To solve the puzzle, Pamerleau and colleagues used simulations and an updated model of how impure ice deforms. Their work reveals that Ceres once hosted a subsurface ocean that froze from the top do...

How does life begin? This intriguing question touches on science, philosophy, and the imagination. Artist and INCUBATOR Art Lab Director Jennifer Willet created an artwork that visualizes the theories of SETI Institute Drake Award recipients Dr. David Deamer and Dr. John Baross. Willet's work, Dreams of Biogenesis, imagines the birth of life on our planet as a reverie of molecules, cells, micro and multicellular organisms assembling and evolving under unique environmental conditions. Join SETI AIR Director Bettina Forget and Jennifer Willet for a conversation about creative research that combines fine arts practices with applied biotechnologies. INCUBATOR Art Lab: https...

Last week, the NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory released its First Look images, including stunning views of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae, an astounding Cosmic Treasure Chest of stars and galaxies, and a "swarm" of newly discovered asteroids. Captured in a mere ten hours of observing time, this preview gave us a taste of what is to come for the groundbreaking observatory. As the press release states, "Rubin's innovative 8.4-meter telescope has the largest digital camera ever built, which feeds a powerful data processing system. Later in 2025, Rubin will begin its primary mission, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LS...

A major new exhibition at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?, runs from May 17, 2025, to January 4, 2026, and will feature a complete LaserSETI instrument on display. The exhibit explores one of humanity's most profound questions: Are we alone in the universe? The exhibition brings together cutting-edge science, captivating artifacts, and the latest research in astrobiology, exoplanets, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. LaserSETI represents a new frontier in SETI, using a global network of instruments to continuously scan the night sky for brief laser pulses—potential signs of technology from beyond Earth. The fi...

🌍 What Will Earth Look Like in 1000 Years? Will humanity collapse, thrive, or colonize the stars—and could alien civilizations detect us? Join senior planetary astronomer Dr. Franck Marchis for a fascinating conversation with Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra, astrobiologist and lead author of a groundbreaking study exploring 10 possible futures for Earth's technosphere—the global network of our technologies—and what these futures mean for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). 🚀 From stable zero-growth societies to interstellar expansion, Dr. Haqq-Misra's team models how Earth's trajectory might look over the next millennium and what clues we might be sending into space. Could future Earth resemb...

Join planetary scientist Beth Johnson as we explore a groundbreaking discovery from NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. Scientists have identified siderite—a rare iron carbonate mineral—within ancient Martian rocks, offering new insights into Mars' once-thicker atmosphere and its now-lost carbon cycle. This discovery reshapes our understanding of the Red Planet's climate history and helps us draw powerful parallels to Earth's carbon processes. Dr. Ben Tutolo, associate professor at the University of Calgary and participating scientist on NASA's Curiosity rover team, explains that as Mars' atmosphere thinned over time, carbon dioxide was sequestered into rock formations, leading to a dram...

Why are Titan's river deltas missing? Planetary astronomer Franck Marchis taps in for Beth Johnson to chat with Brown University's Sam Birch and explore a strange and unexpected mystery on Saturn's largest moon. Using data from NASA's Cassini mission and advanced computer modeling, Birch's team reveals that Titan's shorelines defy Earth-like expectations. Despite Titan's known rivers and seas of liquid methane, the team found a surprising absence of deltas—landforms typically formed when rivers deposit sediment at their mouths. This finding challenges existing geological expectations, as deltas are common on Earth where rivers meet larger bodies of water, and su...

What if the origin of life isn't a one-in-a-billion cosmic fluke, but something that happens whenever the conditions are just right? Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as we explore groundbreaking research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where scientists have identified over 270 self-replicating chemical reactions that may have sparked life, not just on Earth, but potentially anywhere in the universe. Led by astrobiologist Dr. Betül Kaçar, this study reframes our understanding of how life can emerge from simple chemistry. Discover how these "chemical recipes" might reveal a universal pattern for life, help us search distant planets more effe...

A groundbreaking study from the University of Colorado Boulder suggests that ancient Mars was far from the cold, arid planet we know today. Led by Amanda Steckel, the research team utilized computer simulations to reveal that billions of years ago, Mars experienced significant precipitation—either rain or snow—that carved out extensive networks of valleys and channels across its surface. These findings challenge previous theories that Mars was predominantly cold and dry, instead supporting the idea of a warmer, wetter climate during the Noachian epoch, approximately 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. The study provides compelling evidence that precipitation played a cruc...

One significant threat to life here on Earth is the possibility that a massive asteroid will collide with our planet and destroy life as we know it. To understand the possibilities, large surveys of the sky have found around 95% of potentially hazardous asteroids larger than a kilometer. Smaller asteroids, however, can also cause massive amounts of damage. Estimates range from 40 to 60 percent when it comes to asteroids over 100 meters in diameter, which would be considered city-killers. Even smaller asteroids, such as the 20-meter one that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013, can cause destruction and injury. The more asteroids we can...

​A recent study proposes a new model for the evolution of intelligent life, which challenges the long-standing "hard steps" theory that the emergence of intelligent life is an exceedingly rare event due to a series of improbable evolutionary milestones. A team led by postdoctoral researcher Dan Mills from the University of Munich suggests that the development of intelligent life is a natural outcome of planetary evolution. They argue that Earth's environment underwent sequential "windows of habitability," periods when conditions became favorable for complex life to emerge. (Past Drake Award winner Jason Wright is a co-author on the study.) The st...

Join Dr. Franck Marchis, Chief Science Officer and co-founder at Unistellar and director of Citizen Science at SETI Institute, and Dr. Lauren Sgro, Outreach Manager at the SETI Institute, for a conversation on citizen science with the Unistellar network in partnership with the SETI Institute. We will give an update on T CrB, share our new Satellites mode, discuss an exoplanet candidate campaign to confirm a planet, and look ahead to an occultation of asteroid 319 Leona. We will also answer your questions about our program from the Unistellar community page and discuss recent highlights. (Recorded live 17 April 2025.)

A road trip to a gypsum quarry in Algeria led Youcef Sellam on a journey of scientific discovery. From the road trip to an internship in Italy, he and his colleagues later discovered microbial fossils—marking a first for Algerian gypsum. As a Ph.D. student at the University of Bern, Sellam and his team took this research further. They used a special instrument to detect the chemical signatures of these ancient microbes, demonstrating a method that could one day help search for traces of life on Mars. Their findings, published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, highlight ho...

In a recent study, Dr. Janice Bishop of the SETI Institute, along with postdoctoral researcher Adomas Valantinas from Brown University, propose that Mars' characteristic red hue is primarily due to ferrihydrite—a water-rich iron oxide mineral—rather than the previously assumed hematite. Analyses of data collected by Martian orbiters, rovers, and laboratory experiments showed that ferrihydrite closely matches the composition of the dust covering Mars' surface. Ferrihydrite typically forms in environments abundant in cool water, suggesting Mars once had significant liquid water on its surface. The research implies that Mars transitioned from a wet to a dry environment billions of y...

In The Climate Chronicles, a podcast with 42 episodes across eight seasons, Professor Dagomar Degroot of Georgetown University "takes you on a journey through 50 million years of climate change." He delves into how climate change has shaped civilizations—from the earliest hominid ancestors to the present era of rapid global warming. Through storytelling and historical analysis, he reveals the profound influence of climate on human societies. He explains how lessons from the past can help us navigate the challenges of today and tomorrow. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson for a conversation with Professor Degroot. They will explore the intricate connections be...

With over 7,000 exoplanets identified in our galaxy, scientists are shifting their focus to studying these worlds' characteristics in the quest for extraterrestrial life. The backdrop for one team is the discovery of super-Earth HD 20794 d, an exoplanet detected by researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and NCCR PlanetS. Orbiting in an eccentric path, HD 20794 d moves in and out of its star's habitable zone, making it a compelling subject for further study. This breakthrough, built on two decades of observations with the world's most advanced telescopes, has just been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Join planetary astronomer Franck Marchis...

The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) mission has been a resounding success, from taking a sample of asteroid Bennu to returning that sample to Earth. The first in-depth analysis of the space rocks is complete, and the results have been published in Nature and Nature Astronomy. One of the most intriguing results shows that 14 of the 20 amino acids life on Earth uses to form proteins have been found in the sample. This result supports the hypothesis that objects that formed farther from the Sun provided precursor ingredients for life. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson and...

NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH mission, is a constellation of four small satellites in low Earth orbit that will make global, 3D observations of the Sun's corona to better understand how the mass and energy there become the solar wind that fills the solar system. Imaging the Sun's corona and the solar wind together will help scientists better understand the entire inner heliosphere—the Sun, solar wind, and Earth—as a single connected system. Solar wind and energetic solar events like flares and coronal mass ejections can create space weather effects throughout the solar syst...

During his time as an Artist in Residence (AIR) at the SETI Institute, visual artist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst Martin Wilner invited prominent SETI Institute scientists to participate in his ongoing project, The Case Histories. Interested in exploring how scientists relate to the possibility of encountering an alien life form, Wilner invited researchers such as Jill Tarter, Seth Shostak, and Franck Marchis to send him daily messages and share thoughts of interest. These messages, filtered through the prism of psychoanalytical principles, were then transformed into drawings and visualized as daily elements of a calendar. More recently, Wilner has expanded his...

Over the past decade, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured thousands of high-resolution images of the Moon's surface—far more than humans can manually review. To tackle this challenge, scientists have developed an automated system that quickly identifies scientifically significant images from the LRO data, making it the first anomaly detector for planetary imagery. Experiments show that the system reliably highlights unusual features, such as striking geological formations and sites of human landings or spacecraft crashes. This approach fills a critical gap in planetary science, offering a groundbreaking way to uncover hidden insights in vast archives of remote-sensing da...

If an extraterrestrial civilization existed with technology similar to ours, would they be able to detect Earth and evidence of humanity? If so, what signals would they detect, and from how far away? Researchers used a theoretical, modeling-based method, and this study is the first to analyze multiple types of technosignatures together rather than separately. The findings revealed that radio signals, such as planetary radar emissions from the former Arecibo Observatory, are Earth's most detectable technosignatures, potentially visible from up to 12,000 light-years away. Join Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center, for a chat with lead author...

Join Dr. Franck Marchis, Chief Science Officer and co-founder at Unistellar and director of Citizen Science at SETI Institute, and Dr. Lauren Sgro, Outreach Manager at the SETI Institute, for a conversation on citizen science with the Unistellar network in partnership with the SETI Institute. We review the 2024 citizen science accomplishments and discuss the 2025 campaigns so far. We will answer your questions about our program from the Unistellar community page and discuss some recent highlights. (Recorded 6 February 2025.)

New research using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope reveals that planet formation can occur in harsh, high-radiation stellar environments. This contradicts earlier assumptions and suggests planet formation is more resilient than previously thought. The study observed protoplanetary disks within the Sigma Orionis cluster, finding structures indicating potential planet formation despite intense ultraviolet radiation from a nearby star. These findings expand our understanding of planetary formation and its prevalence throughout the galaxy, informing studies of our own solar system's origins. The high-resolution images obtained by ALMA were crucial to these discoveries. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson for...

Happy New Year! 2024 brought us a lot of exciting space news, from a total solar eclipse to the launch of Europa Clipper and our celebration of 40 years as the SETI Institute. What does 2025 hold? Join hosts Beth Johnson and Franck Marchis for our first show of the year, taking a look at new ground and space telescopes, planned missions and milestones, as well as the various eclipses. Plus, Saturn's rings will be "disappearing"! (Recorded live 9 January 2025.)

Join communications specialist Beth Johnson and historian Rebecca Charbonneau as they discuss Dr. Charbonneau's new book, Mixed Signals. The book examines the Cold War relationship between the US and the USSR, what it meant for radio astronomy, and how it affected the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. (Recorded live on 19 December 2024.)

Get ready to giggle and make bad jokes. Uranus is back in the news. In 1986, Voyager 2 flew by the distant ice giant and made a strange discovery—the planet's magnetic field was weird. It's not just weird; it's unlike every other planet in the solar system. For nearly 40 years, scientists have tried to understand why. To solve the mystery, researchers delved into the data collected by Voyager 2 and found a "cosmic coincidence". The solar wind was unusually strong just prior to the flyby, causing the strange observations. This is good news for Uranus's moons, which were thought to be in...

Imagine that scene from every apocalyptic asteroid movie—you know the one. The scientist comes rushing in because a "new" asteroid has been detected and is on a collision course with Earth. What happens next? The answer depends on several factors: how big is the asteroid, what is it made of, and how soon is the impact? (That's simplified but roll with it.) NASA's DART mission showed that an impactor can change the orbit of an asteroid, but that tested the hypothesis on the tiny moon of a small asteroid. What if the asteroid is much larger? Scientists at Sa...

Join Dr. Franck Marchis, Chief Science Officer and co-founder at Unistellar and director of Citizen Science at SETI Institute, and Dr. Lauren Sgro, Outreach Manager at the SETI Institute, for a conversation on citizen science with the Unistellar network in partnership with the SETI Institute. We take the time to answer your questions about our program on the Unistellar community page and discuss some of the recent highlights, including comet observations and exoplanet discoveries. (Recorded 21 November 2024.)

Nearly 40 years ago, on November 20, 1984, the SETI Institute was incorporated with inaugural officers CEO Thomas Pierson and SETI scientist Jill Tarter. The goal was to provide SETI researchers with a place to grow the search for life beyond Earth. What began with one NASA-funded SETI project and two people has since grown to include over 100 researchers and various scientific areas of study, all seeking to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe. As a part of our outreach and education efforts, we grew our presence on the Internet, reaching out to a wide audience...

OSIRIS-REx and the Hayabusa spacecraft have sample asteroids to understand what they're made of. NASA sent the DART mission to change the orbit of a tiny asteroid orbiting another asteroid. ESA sent Hera as a follow-up mission to see what the impactor did. All of these missions have been done in the name of planetary defense -- protecting Earth from the worst of the rocks in space. While none of the asteroids so far discovered are a threat to our planet in the next century, there are still more out there that are small enough to do major damage...

In September 2022, a small spacecraft called DART hit the surface of a tiny asteroid moonlet called Dimorphos. That spacecraft was the first test of a planetary defense system, attempting to change an asteroid's orbit in the hope of being able to do so under a real near-Earth threat. The test succeeded, shortening the moonlet's orbit by 32 minutes. Now, a follow-up mission called Hera is on its way to the system, complete with an orbiter and a lander. The European Space Agency plans to observe the impact site and measure any changes to the shape and any craters left behind...

The cosmos is full of huge questions: "What caused the Big Bang? What happens inside black holes? Are there other dimensions?" Scientists have been working to answer these questions, but sometimes, we feel like the answers are unknowable. Astrophysicist Kelsey Johnson contemplates what this paradox means for science, particularly where philosophy and even religion come into play. In her latest book, "Into the Unknown", Johnson takes us to the edge of our understanding. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she chats with author Kelsey Johnson about science, philosophy, and our quest for answers that may not be available. (Recorded...

In 1976, NASA's two Viking spacecraft touched down on Mars, becoming the first successful landers on the red planet. On board Viking 1, the craft carried several biological experiments to search for life. While most scientists consider the results of those experiments to be negative for Martian life, one experiment gave a positive result. The resulting controversy has spanned decades, with numerous scientists weighing in. Now, Dirk Schulze-Makuch from the Centre of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ZAA) at Technische Universität Berlin questions how those experiments were performed in light of what we know of extremely dry environments here on Earth. These M...

Suppose global warming raised temperatures so drastically that crops failed and caused world hunger. Would you support the idea of gene editing humans' skin cells so that photosynthesis would become an alternative source of human nutrition? The Non Random Arts Collective, part of the SETI Institute's Artist in Residence (AIR) program, explores fascinating scenarios connecting climate change, habitability, and gene editing. SETI AIR Director Bettina Forget chats with the collective about their GAIA workshop series, which they led at the SETI Institute this summer, where they invited scientists and artists to engage with the intricacies of climate adaptation, space...

Comets are small objects in our solar system made of ice and dust. As they get closer to the Sun in their orbits, the ices turn into gas and give off a glow that can be seen in telescopes. With luck, that glow brightens to the point where a comet can be seen with the unaided eye. Some, like Halley's Comet, return on a regular schedule. Others are more one and done, breaking apart as they near the Sun or getting a gravity assist to leave our solar system. And every year, astronomers hope for the "comet of the...

Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. We've been finding potential exoplanets more often since the Kepler and TESS spacecraft were launched. But confirming these planets takes time, and telescope time is limited. To speed up the process, amateur astronomers are using their own telescopes. One program, called UNITE (Unistellar Network Investigating TESS Exoplanets), brings together a global group of volunteer and professional astronomers. They use Unistellar telescopes to gather data when exoplanets pass in front of their stars, blocking some of the light. Scientists from the SETI Institute and Unistellar analyze this data. Recently, they...

In the quest to find life beyond Earth, icy worlds within our solar system are full of potential. Europa, one of Jupiter's four largest (Galilean) moons, is one possible target because of the vast ocean beneath its icy shell. That ocean, heated by the push and pull of Jupiter, could contain life. The Europa Clipper mission will send a spacecraft to the distant moon, and the spacecraft's instruments will determine if the conditions truly are suitable. This week, NASA announced that Europa Clipper passed another milestone toward the October 10 launch window. Communications specialist Beth Johnson is joined by Project...

There are supermassive black holes. There are stellar mass black holes. And based on the idea that galaxies evolve as they merge, there should be black holes in between -- intermediate mass black holes. However, finding these middle-of-the-road beasts has been difficult. Now, a new paper in Nature identifies the first ever mid-size sedan in a universe of compact cars and SUVs. This black hole resides in the center of the Omega Centauri star cluster, which is thought to be the core of a galaxy that merged with the Milky Way billions of years ago. Deputy Director of the...

When a star at its life's end explodes, a debris cloud expands away from the now-dead star. The debris forms intricate and amazing structures in the expanding cloud and can cause the formation of a variety of molecules. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have collected information regarding Cassiopeia A (Cas A), the youngest known supernova remnant in the Milky Way. The observations shed light on how molecules and dust form and are destroyed in the aftermath of an explosion. These results suggest that supernovae, like Cas A, are key sources of the dust observed in ancient galaxies...

Scientists now can work out what the atmospheres of worlds outside our solar system are made of. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, we have seen water, carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases. Could we, from this distance, know how those gases formed? Possibly. Looking for planets with signs of being intentionally changed - terraforming - would give us proof of an advanced civilization, and a new paper explores just how the investigation process would work. Senior astronomer Franck Marchis talks with authors Edward W. Schwieterman and Daniel Angerhausen about what these gases would be and why they would...

A super-Earth in a distant star system may explain what Mars, Venus, and Earth were like billions of years ago -- incredibly hot and covered in magma oceans. Those oceans may have supplied the planets with early atmospheres full of gases needed for life. While Venus's atmosphere became thick and heavy and Mars couldn't hold on to its atmosphere, Earth became a truly habitable world where life thrives. What can 55 Cancri e, over 40 light years away, teach us about our early solar system? Planetary scientist Beth Johnson asks Renyu Hu (NASA JPL) about his recent paper that uses JWST...

"The Secret Life of the Universe" by Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, the SETI Institute's chief scientist and Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, is coming out this week, both in the US (August 13, 2024) and in the UK (August 15, 2024). Scriber/Simon & Schuster publishes both editions. Cabrol articulates an overview of where we stand today in our search for life in the universe, what's coming, and how looking out for life beyond Earth teaches us about our place on our planet. Nathalie joins communications specialist Beth Johnson during this week's SETI Live to celebrate this occasion and discuss...

Join SETI Institute CEO Bill Diamond as he explores NASA's AI-driven mission planning, data analysis, and anomaly detection. Since 2015, the SETI Institute's Frontier Development Lab (FDL) has partnered with NASA, using machine learning (ML) to classify data, predict outcomes, and uncover trends. With FDL's support, ML tools automate tasks, streamline decision-making, save resources, and maximize NASA's science data potential. Guests will be Megan Ansdell, Program Officer in the Planetary Science Division (PSD) and the Astrophysics Division (APD) at NASA Headquarters; Victoria Da Poian, Data Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Eric Lyness, Principal Systems Engineer, NASA Goddard Space Flight...

In late 2019, an unremarkable galaxy with the catalog number SDSS1335+0728 suddenly started shining brighter than ever. Curious as to why, astronomers used data from space and ground-based observatories to track changes in the galaxy's brightness and concluded that we are witnessing the sudden awakening of the massive black hole at the galaxy's core. The results were published in Astronomy & Astrophysics in June 2024 with lead author Paula Sánchez Sáez, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory in Germany. Join Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center, Simon Steel, in a chat with Dr. Sánchez Sáez about thes...

Imagine standing on the shore of a vast lake, watching the waves crash against the beach after a storm. Now put that beach on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, where the lakes contain liquid methane and ethane. Perhaps do not imagine yourself there after all, but enjoy the thought that even with the unfamiliar and hazardous contents, lakes on Titan are shaped by the same processes as lakes on Earth - crashing waves cause coastal erosion. Such is the discovery in new work published in Science Advances and led by USGS scientist Dr. Rose Palermo. Join Beth Johnson and Dr...

When scientists found the first exoplanets over 30 years ago, the discovery defied all expectations. In the following decades, with the advent of NASA's Kepler and TESS missions and numerous ground-based observatories, the exoplanet count has risen to nearly 6,000 confirmed worlds and some 7,200 candidates. Press releases on newly confirmed planets tend to be about exciting or strange places, and this week's SETI Live is no exception. Discovered in TESS data, Gliese 12 b is a recently confirmed exoplanet the size of Earth or Venus, orbiting a red dwarf star every thirteen days and "only" about 40 light-years away from our solar system...

In 2023, scientists analyzed archival data from NASA's Magellan mission, which mapped the surface of our "twin" planet, Venus. They discovered evidence of a recent volcanic eruption on the world's surface by comparing the Magellan images over time. Now, a team of Italian scientists has found evidence for two more eruptions during Magellan's observations. Published in Nature Astronomy, this new research could help us understand why Venus took a different path in planetary evolution and provides some follow-up questions for the upcoming VERITAS mission. Join senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis as he chats with lead author Davide Sulcanese of d'Annunzio...

Are we alone? This question continues to tantalize and mystify scientists and the public alike, wondering if Earth contains not only the one known sample of life in the Universe but also the ONLY life in the Universe. In her new book, Alien Earths, astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger (founding director of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute) "demonstrates how we can use our homeworld as a Rosetta Stone, creatively analyzing Earth's history and its astonishing biosphere" to inform our search for life beyond Earth. Communications specialist Beth Johnson chatted with Dr. Kaltenegger about her research, her writing, and the ever-improving tools...

In a collaboration between the Asteroid Institute and Google Cloud, machine learning algorithms identified 27,500 new asteroids using existing data sets from the NOIRLab Source Catalog Data Release 2 (NSC DR2). While most of the asteroids are in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, more than 100 are considered Near-Earth Asteroids. Developed by the Asteroid Institute, the algorithm is called Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery (THOR), and it "projects theoretical orbits across millions of observed moving points of light and links together those points that are consistent with real physical orbits". Join communications specialist Beth Johnson in a conversation with Ed Lu...

Scientists have used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to map the weather on the hot gas-giant exoplanet, WASP-43 b. Through precise measurements of mid-infrared light and advanced 3D climate models, they've discovered some fascinating details: thick, high clouds cover the nightside; clear skies dominate the dayside; and equatorial winds race at speeds up to 8,000 kilometers per hour, mixing atmospheric gases around the planet. This breakthrough showcases JWST's incredible ability to measure temperature variations and detect atmospheric gases from trillions of miles away, marking a significant step forward in exoplanet science. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson for a chat with...

The INVADER project researches ways to improve life detection in ocean worlds by studying alien worlds in Earth's deep ocean. We seek to understand how we can detect life in the deep ocean here on Earth with flight-ready instruments (e.g., can go on a space flight mission). The deep ocean is a testing ground to help us validate what data collected by these instruments could tell us about life if we deployed them to the seafloor of an ocean world. To this end, in 2021, Laura Rodriguez (LPI) and Pablo Sobron (SETI Institute) traveled to Axial Seamount in the...

The SETI Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Andrew Siemion will be honored with the prestigious 2024 Drake Award for his exceptional and pioneering contributions to SETI and radio astronomy and his leadership in the field. Siemion's distinguished career includes his role as the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute, Principal Investigator for the Breakthrough Listen Initiative at the University of Oxford, along with holding an Honorary Professorship at the University of Manchester, an Adjunct Appointment at the University of Malta, and directing the Berkeley SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. His...

T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, is a well-studied nova system in the constellation Corona Borealis. In fact, T CrB produces a recurring nova — one of only five known in our galaxy — that erupts approximately every 80 years, making this a once-in-a-lifetime event. Astronomers predict that the star will explode again within the coming year, likely before this September. When it does erupt, the rather dim T CrB could become as bright as our North Star. Observers with the SETI/Unistellar Network have been watching this star system since last summer and now monitor it daily through the Cosmic Cataclysms citi...

In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers have identified an Earth-sized planet closer and younger than any previously known. Positioned remarkably close to both our planet (73 light-years away) and a Sun-like star, this newly found world offers a unique opportunity for scientists to study the evolution of planets. Catalogued as HD 63433 d, this hot exoplanet orbits its star in 4.2 days, making it one of the closest orbiting Earth-sized worlds. With its young age and proximity, HD 63433 d promises invaluable insights into planetary formation and evolution, unlocking mysteries about the processes shaping worlds beyond our own. A paper detailing the planet and...

The documentary short "Deep Sky" takes viewers on a breathtaking journey through space and time, showcasing stunning imagery captured by NASA's Webb Telescope on the giant IMAX® screen. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn and narrated by Michelle Williams, the film delves into the monumental effort behind the telescope's construction and launch, set to orbit a million miles from Earth. As it explores never-before-seen cosmic landscapes and newly discovered exoplanets, "Deep Sky" prompts timeless questions about our origins and the vastness of the universe. With Kahn's track record of award-winning documentaries, including "The Hunt for Planet B" and "My A...

A deeply eroded giant volcano, active from ancient through recent times and with possible remnants of glacier ice near its base, had been hiding near Mars' equator in plain sight. Its discovery points to an exciting new place to search for life, and a potential destination for future robotic and human exploration.

"We were examining the geology of an area where we had found the remains of a glacier last year when we realized we were inside a huge and deeply eroded volcano," said Dr. Pascal Lee, planetary scientist with the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute...

A potential future space mission known as the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) could study terrestrial worlds in their stars' habitable zones (where water can be liquid) using spectral emissions in the mid-infrared. With only one known example of a world with life - Earth - scientists recently examined whether or not such a mission could determine if a planet was habitable. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, the results of a recent study concluded that yes, LIFE could find "signatures of crucial atmospheric species and [detect] the planet's temperate climate as well as surface conditions allowing for liquid water."<...

Join us for a live discussion with senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis and planetary scientist Beth Johnson as they delve into the thrilling search for life on Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus. Drawing on recent findings highlighted by Universe Today and ESA, Franck and Beth will explore the significant implications of a single grain of ice potentially holding evidence of life and why Enceladus stands as a top target for future explorations by the European Space Agency.

Discover how ESA's ambitious mission plans aim to investigate the habitability of ocean worlds within our Solar System, focusing on the...

The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system has fascinated both scientists and the public since the discovery of the last five of its seven terrestrial worlds in 2017. With four of those planets in the so-called habitable zone, where water can be liquid, the system has become a favorite target of ground- and space-based telescopes alike, especially with regard to the potential for harboring life. However, TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf star, cooler and smaller than our own Sun, leading to concerns about the ability of these tidally locked worlds to develop and maintain their own atmospheres. Now, in new research published in...

A tale of destiny and danger, The Asteroid Hunter chronicles firsthand the high-stakes OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission, narrated by Principal Investigator Dr. Dante Lauretta. It offers readers an intimate glimpse into the riveting exploits of the mission and Dr. Lauretta's wild, winding personal journey to Bennu and back. Peeling back the curtain on the wonders of the cosmos, this enthralling account promises a rare glimpse into the tightly woven fabric of scientific exploration, where technical precision converges with humanity's profound curiosity and indomitable spirit.

In anticipation of this exciting new release, communications specialist Beth Johnson chats...

Nimbly combining the tools of art and science, SETI Institute Artist in Residence Xin Liu expresses what it means to be human through a diverse body of work that includes frost-coated sculptures, a bubbling fountain of crude oil, and a performance in outer space. In a new body of sculptures exhibited at Pioneer Works in New York City, the artist considers her fears around having her eggs frozen, creating warped, skeletal, frost-covered sculptures that propose a human body transformed through a cryogenic process. Through art, Liu centers the human experience in the face of technologies and developments motivated by...

Only eight times in history have scientists found an asteroid, tracked its trajectory toward Earth, and caught the resulting fireball on cameras. The latest of these eight events happened in January 2024, with the discovery of asteroid 2024 BX1, a mere three hours before impacting the atmosphere over Europe. And of course, the SETI Institute's own Dr. Peter Jenniskens was hot on the trail, flying to Germany to help search for meteorite fragments. Within the week, several pieces were discovered, and early analysis found that they belong to a rare group of meteorites called "aubrites".

Join communications specialist Beth...

Throughout human history, comets have fascinated us. They have gone from signs and portents of bad things to come to well-studied and even visited "dirty snowballs". Every year, observers search the skies, hoping to discover the Next Big Comet - Halley, Hyakutake, Hale–Bopp, McNaught. From SOHO and LINEAR to ATLAS and IRAS, numerous observatories have continued to add to the count of discovered comets. But it doesn't require expensive hardware or spacecraft to make similar observations from your own backyard; telescopes and even binoculars will work - at least for the brightest objects. For members of Unistellar's Citizen Sc...

Phil Plait, aka the Bad Astronomer, has been communicating and correcting space science since the turn of the century (sorry, Phil!). His first book, "Bad Astronomy", tackled numerous misconceptions and myths about astronomy and space missions. His second book, "Death from the Skies!", took a look at a variety of ways the world will end. Now, in his latest book, "Under Alien Skies", Phil becomes a tour guide to the cosmos, taking us all on a trip through the universe to marvel at the wonders of other worlds, distant star systems, and mind-blowing phenomena.

Communications specialist Beth...

With a first flight on April 19, 2021, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter broke ground on new capabilities for remote planetary missions. For nearly three years, the little drone far exceeded the originally planned technology demonstration of up to five flights, taking off and landing 72 times! Sadly, damage to the rotor blades has now left Ginny grounded, but the spacecraft has paved the way for future aerial explorers at Mars and, potentially, other space destinations.

Join senior astronomer and Director of Unistellar Citizen Science Franck Marchis in this exciting SETI Live with Ingenuity Team Lead Teddy Tzanetos, as they look back...

Join us for an exciting SETI Live where we'll explore the wonders beyond Earth. We're excited to have Valery Lainey, a renowned researcher from the Paris Observatory in France, as our guest. Franck Marchis, our Senior Astronomer, will be guiding the conversation, sharing insights from the universe. It's set to be an engaging event, and we hope you'll be part of it!

In a groundbreaking study published in Nature Journal, Valery Lainey and his team have unveiled a remarkable discovery about Saturn's moon Mimas. Once thought to be a cold, solid body of ice and rock, Mimas...

In a groundbreaking cosmic quest, the SETI Institute's Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster (COSMIC) at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This cutting-edge technology is not a distinct telescope; it's a detector. COSMIC searches for extraterrestrial signals and paves the way for future science using a copy of the raw data from the telescope's observations. At the heart of COSMIC's mission is pursuing the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe? Project scientist Dr. Chenoa Tremblay and the team detailed the project in a paper published in The...

NASA's Juno mission has observed mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Data for this discovery was collected by the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer aboard the spacecraft during a close flyby of the icy moon. The findings, which could help scientists better understand the origin of Ganymede and the composition of its deep ocean, were published on Oct. 30 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Federico Tosi, a Juno co-investigator from Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome and lead author of the paper, speaks with senior astronomer Franck Marchis about this...

Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren't so sure it's a good idea. Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn't spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won't create nightmares, both for settlers...

Join us for an exclusive SETI Live event, as we take a first look at the next-generation telescope from Unistellar - the ODYSSEY.

First introduced in 2017 with their eVscope, Unistellar has been a prominent collaborator with the SETI Institute since 2019. eVscopes have been used by schools, colleges, and the public to observe exoplanets, supernovae, and asteroids in a truly global network that continues to grow.

Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center, and Franck Marchis, Co-founder of Unistellar and citizen science director at the SETI Institute, will talk about the technology of the...

The new year has begun, and it's time for your favorite hosts - Franck Marchis and Beth Johnson - to run down some of the space science to look forward to in 2024. We will talk about launches, missions, celestial events (including a certain solar eclipse), and even SETI Institute's 40th anniversary. So come watch live and bring your questions!

For our last SETI Live of 2023, senior astronomer Seth Shostak and communications specialist Beth Johnson have fun chatting about the "science" behind Santa's overnight journey. How can he deliver presents so quickly? How do the reindeer fly? And just how did NORAD's Santa Tracker come about? Join the holiday shenanigans and watch live! (Recorded 21 December 2023.)

In a new study published in the Astronomical Journal, researchers used the known population of exoplanets to set better thresholds for planetary effects on signals from ETIs (extraterrestrial intelligences). Megan Grace Li, a Ph.D. student at UCLA in UCLA SETI, conducted this research as a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates intern in the Breakthrough Listen project at the Berkeley SETI Research Center.

Join Megan as she chats with Beth Johnson about her work and what it means for the future of SETI searches. (Recorded 30 November 2023.)

On Earth, we understand how and where earthquakes happen due to the discovery of plate tectonics – the continental crust's creation, movement, and destruction. However, when astronauts placed seismometers on the lunar surface during NASA's Apollo mission era, those instruments recorded quakes on the Moon. In the 1970s, the Viking landers also recorded quakes on the surface of Mars. Since neither of these worlds has plate tectonics, scientists set about collecting more data to understand the phenomena, which led to the recent NASA InSight lander. Now, a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters explains how the largest recorded seismic event on...

The Universe is trying to kill us. We know an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, which was great for the rise of mammals, but how do we prevent a similar fate for humanity? Enter the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, NASA's first attempt at planetary defense by redirecting the orbit of an asteroid's moon. DART launched in November 2021, impacted Dimorphos in September 2022, and successfully changed the moonlet's orbit by 32 minutes. Since that successful test mission, the data from the impact and subsequent debris has been analyzed by countless teams worldwide. So what is next for planetary defense?

Look at a Moon atlas, and you'll see a land populated with the names of philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers. Great men like Plato, Aristarchus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Planck have been immortalized by naming Moon craters after them, cementing their names in the firmament. But – what about the women? Out of the 1,578 cataloged and named craters on the lunar surface, 32 are named after women – that is barely 2%. SETI Artist in Residence Program Director Bettina Forget found this percentage to be "disappointingly low", so she decided to highlight the issue through her artwork.

After researching the locations of the...