SETI Live

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 glacie...

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...

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...

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, TRA...

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 enthra...

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, c...

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...

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 co...

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...

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...

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 publis...

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...

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 publ...

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...

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 con...

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...

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 o...

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 succe...

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 afte...

Led by Anicia Arredondo, researchers used the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to investigate the metallic nature of the asteroid Psyche, believed to be rich in metals. SOFIA observed the entire surface of Psyche, using mid-infrared instruments to analyze its emissivity and porosity. The results confirmed that Psyche is a metallic body with some differences between the nort...

Launched on Sept. 8, 2016, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft traveled to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36) and collected a sample of rocks and dust from the surface. The spacecraft flew by Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, delivering the capsule containing the sample, which landed at the Department o...

Up until now, the quest to find evidence of active volcanism on other worlds has been limited to our own solar system. We've definitively seen volcanoes erupting on Jupiter's moon, Io; we've possibly found evidence of geologically recent volcanism on Venus; and Mars has the largest volcano, although dormant, in Olympus Mons. With the advent of the JWST era, however, more possibilities have opened...

The Apollo missions showed scientists that the craters on the Moon were from impacts rather than volcanoes, overturning previously held hypotheses. Now, new research using data collected by China's Chinese Chang'E 1 and 2 orbiters has discovered a hot spot under the surface. Using an instrument that made observations at microwave wavelengths, the team mapped out temperatures and found one particul...