SETI Live

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 crucial role in shaping the Martian landscape, offering new insights into the planet's climatic history and its potential to have supported life. Join planetary scientist Beth Johnson and Dr. Steckel as they discuss the results of this study and its implications for finding life, especially past life, on Mars. (Recorded live 8 May 2025.)

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 find, the better our predictions and future protections will be. In light of this threat, scientists have used the JWST to detect 138 of the smallest asteroids (as small as 10 meters) ever observed in the asteroid belt. These tiny asteroids are important because they can become near-Earth objects (NEOs), posing a risk to Earth through possible impacts, including powerful explosions. By analyzing the size and frequency of asteroids, researchers found a significant change in the population of asteroids around 100 meters in size, likely due to collisions breaking larger asteroids into smaller ones. The observed asteroids originated from known asteroid families and were detected using advanced tracking and infrared imaging techniques. This research enhances our understanding of asteroid behavior and may aid in predicting and mitigating future asteroid threats. Join planetary astronomer Franck Marchis in a conversation with lead authors Artem Y. Burdanov and Julien de Wit as they discuss these smaller asteroids and what they can reveal about potential threats to our planet. (Recorded live 1 May 2025.)

​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 study emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between astrophysics and geobiology to understand the evolution of life. Join planetary astronomer Franck Marchis in an in-depth discussion with Dr. Mills about why intelligent life may be common and how this could affect our search for life beyond Earth. (Recorded live 24 April 2025.)

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 how chemical analysis can reveal biological traces in minerals. Join planetary scientist Beth Johnson and Youcef for a discussion of how this research brings us one step closer to understanding how we might detect past life on the Red Planet. (Recorded live 10 April 2025.)

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 years ago. Confirming these findings would require returning samples from Mars to Earth for comprehensive analysis. Join planetary scientist Beth Johnson for a chat with Dr. Bishop about the evidence for ferrihydrite and what it could have meant for life on Mars. (Recorded live 3 April 2025.)

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 between climate, human history, and future challenges. (Recorded live 27 March 2025.)

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 and lead author Nicola Nari for a discussion on the search for exoplanets, what a habitable world could look like, and how HD 20794 d will help us understand our universe. (Recorded live 20 March 2025.)

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 senior sample scientist Danny Glavin from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for a discussion of these important results and their implications for the development of life. (Recorded live on 13 March 2025.)

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 system. These phenomena can significantly impact human society and technology, sparking and intensifying auroras, interfering with satellites, and triggering power outages. The measurements from PUNCH will provide scientists with new information about how these potentially disruptive events form and evolve. This could lead to more accurate predictions about the arrival of space weather events at Earth and the impact on humanity's robotic explorers in space. The launch of PUNCH and the SPHEREx mission is scheduled for no earlier than 27 February 2025 from Vandenberg SFB. Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center, and MUSE Outreach Lead Rebecca Robinson will attend the launch and return to the SETI Institute for a chat about the mission, its scientific goals, and its relevance to understanding life on Earth. (Recorded live 6 March 2025. PUNCH launched on 11 March.)

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 conversations into the realm of AI, an “alien” intelligence that is already in our midst. In this conversation, hosted by SETI AIR Director Bettina Forget, discover how Wilner weaves connections between the human mind, machine learning, consciousness, and our ideas about extraterrestrial life. (Recorded live 27 February 2025.)

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 data. Join senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis as he chats with authors Adam Lesnikowski and Daniel Angerhausen about this revolutionary method and its implications for future discoveries. (Recorded 20 February 2025.)

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 Sofia Sheikh about the research's findings and their implications for the search for technosignatures. (Recorded 13 February 2025.)

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 an interview with lead author Dr. Jane Huang about this new research, its impact on understanding our solar system, and how it relates to the search for habitable worlds. (Recorded 23 January 2025.)

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 inactive as a result of the Voyager 2 findings. Join planetary scientist Beth Johnson and space plasma physicist Jamie Jasinski from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as they discuss the initial observations, how the data was reevaluated, and what this all means for future missions to Uranus. (Recorded 12 December 2024.)

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 Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico may have an answer -- a controlled nuclear blast that deflects (rather than destroys) the asteroid. Join planetary scientist Beth Johnson and lead author Nathan Moore for an exciting—and probably terrifying—conversation about how to keep our advanced civilization alive. (Recorded live 5 December 2024.)

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 through our website, social media, and livestreams like SETI Live. We have education programs across all age ranges. We produce the weekly podcast Big Picture Science. And today, we celebrate all of these accomplishments and look forward to the next 40 years of science. Join host and senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis as he chats with SETI Institute President and CEO Bill Diamond, senior astronomer and Big Picture Science co-host Seth Shostak, long-time Board of Directors member Andrew Fraknoi, and the Director of the Carl Sagan Center Nathalie Cabrol. (Recorded live 14 November 2024.)

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 to a city or even country. So what do we do if we find a near-Earth asteroid that's a real threat? Launch a team a la "Armageddon"? Ignore the problem? Try to flee off-planet or below ground? As DART showed, the best answer seems to be "move it out of the way". In his new book "How to Kill an Asteroid", Dr. Robin George Andrews tells the story of planetary defense and how we got to this point in saving ourselves. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson in a fun (and slightly scary) conversation with Dr. Andrews about killer asteroids this Halloween on SETI Live. (Recorded 31 October 2024.)

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. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she chats with Hera's principal investigator, Patrick Michel, from the Université Côte d'Azur about the mission, the science, and the technology being tested. (Recorded live 24 October 2024.)

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 live 21 October 2024.)

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 Mars analogs, such as the Atacama desert in Chile, show that while microbes can survive in harsh conditions, too much water becomes a problem. And those Viking experiments may have involved too much water. Join Dr. Franck Marchis as he discusses Dr. Schulze-Makuch's recent Nature Astronomy article and how we should follow the salts instead of the water. (Recorded 28 October 2024.)

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 exploration, and genetic research. The Non Random Arts Collective consists of Linda O'Keeffe, Ashley James Brown, Tony Doyle, and Ines Montalvao. Together, they delve into the intersections between the arts and diverse fields such as astrophysics, genetics, urban planning, ecology, climate change, technological adaptation, AI, and design futures. (Recorded live 17 October 2024.)

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 century" -- a rare but visible comet that provides a show with a glorious coma and tail. This October, the observing community hopes that not just one but TWO recently discovered comets will put on that show. This week, Beth Johnson is joined by Dr. Ariel Graykowski, the Cometary Activity Lead for the SETI Institute and Unistellar citizen science project, to chat about the search for comets and the hope that either Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS or C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) will soon be visible to the unaided eye. (Recorded 3 October 2024.)

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 confirmed two exoplanets—a hot Jupiter and a warm sub-Saturn. Dr. Lauren Sgro, UNITE's Exoplanets Lead, talks with communications specialist Beth Johnson about exoplanets, community science, and how science is evolving. (Recorded live 19 September 2024.)

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 Staff Scientist and Science Communications Lead Cynthia Phillips to discuss the mission and how it could answer the question, "Are we alone?" (Recorded live 12 September 2024.)

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 Carl Sagan Center Simon Steel chats with lead author Maximilian Häberle (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy) about just what this discovery means for astrophysics and galaxy evolution. (Recorded live 5 September 2024.)

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. A recent paper highlights the findings of this work, including the temperatures measured and molecules formed. Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center Simon Steel chats with lead author Jeonghee Rho and co-authors Danny Milisavljevic and Ilse De Looze about the data collected and what it means for dust formation in the universe. (Recorded live 29 August 2024.)

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 work as evidence of life. (Recorded 28 August 2024.)

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 to examine the distant world's atmosphere. (Recorded 22 August 2024.)

"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 her latest work. (Recorded live 15 August 2024.)

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 Center and Janice Bishop, Senior Research Scientist, SETI Institute. (Recorded live 1 August 2024.)

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 these results and what they mean for our understanding of galaxies and their black holes. (Recorded 1 August 2024.) Press release: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2409/

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. Palermo for an interesting conversation about the similarities between the two vastly different worlds and their lakes. (Recorded live 11 July 2014.)

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. This close-in, rocky world could potentially be studied using the JWST for more precise information on its size and atmospheric composition (if there is an atmosphere). Two separate teams of researchers confirmed the planet, and today, senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis is joined by the two lead authors from one of those teams - Shishir Dholakia, a doctoral student at the Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, and Larissa Palethorpe, a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh. Join Franck, Shishir, and Larissa in what promises to be an interesting conversation about Gliese 12 b's discovery, confirmation, and potential for understanding planetary formation and evolution. (Recorded 27 June 2024.)

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 University in Pescara, Italy, about this remarkable new work and what it means for future studies of Venus. (Recorded 20 June 2024.)

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 available in our quest for answers. (Recorded 13 June 2024.)

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, Executive Director of the Asteroid Institute, as they discuss these results and how they affect our planetary defense outlook. (Recorded live 6 June 2024.)

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 lead author and researcher Taylor Bell from the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute as they discuss these amazing findings and what they mean in the search for habitable worlds. (Recorded 30 May 2024.)

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 Pacific Ocean to place some microbial traps at low temperature (~23 C) vents. These traps contained substrates and minerals relevant to materials we might find in ocean worlds to see which minerals are most attractive to life under hydrothermal conditions and whether we could reliably detect that life with our instruments. Postdoctoral Fellow Bonnie Teece went on a research cruise in 2023, collected these samples, and brought them back to the laboratory to find out what these data can tell us about life and rocks deep in our ocean world and apply that to what we might find on other ocean worlds. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she chats with Dr. Teece about her initial analysis of the microbial traps and what they could mean for our search for life beyond Earth, especially involving ocean worlds like Europa and Enceladus. (Recorded 23 May 2024.)

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 dedication to SETI science and funding has been crucial in advocating for the scientific validity and importance of the field. Ahead of the awards reception, communications specialist Beth Johnson talks with Dr. Siemion about his career so far, receiving the Drake Award, and his vision for the future of SETI research. (Recorded 16 May 2024.)

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 citizen science program. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she talks to Dr. Tom Esposito, SETI researcher and Lead of the Cosmic Cataclysms program, about this exciting nova and the efforts to catch it! (Recorded 9 May 2024.)

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 its discovery was recently published in The Astronomical Journal. Communications specialist Beth Johnson speaks with lead authors Melinda Soares-Furtado and Benjamin Capistrant about this amazing discovery and the implications for planetary formation studies. (Recorded 25 April 2024.)

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 Architect," "Deep Sky" promises to immerse audiences in the beauty and mystery of space in a truly unforgettable cinematic experience. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson in a special conversation with director Nathaniel Kahn about the telescope, the filmmaking process, and how we share science with the world.

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 based at NASA Ames Research Center, and the lead author of the study announced at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in The Woodlands, Texas. Sourabh Shubham, a graduate student in the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland, is co-author of the discovery.  Join Dr. Lee as he talks with communications specialist Beth Johnson about the recent discovery and its potential impact on the search for life beyond Earth. (Recorded 11 April 2024.)  Press release: https://www.seti.org/press-release/giant-volcano-discovered-mars

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." Co-author Björn S. Konrad joins senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis from ETH Zurich for an engaging SETI Live on how they used remote sensing data to draw their conclusions and what the results mean for the search for life beyond Earth. (Recorded 4 April 2024.) Press release: https://www.phys.ethz.ch/news-and-events/d-phys-news/2024/02/if-earth-were-an-exoplanet.html Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad198b 

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 unique conditions of Enceladus. Learn about the intriguing characteristics that make this distant moon an ideal candidate for uncovering signs of life beyond Earth, including its watery plumes rich in organic compounds and the powerful source of chemical energy that may fuel living organisms. This engaging session promises to ignite curiosity and offer insights into the technological innovations and scientific quests that drive our search for extraterrestrial life. Don't miss this opportunity to journey through the latest advancements and hypotheses that position Enceladus as a beacon of hope in the quest to answer one of humanity's most profound questions: Are we alone in the universe? (Recorded 28 March 2024.)

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 The Astrophysical Journal, a team of researchers has discovered that TRAPPIST-1e's atmosphere is being stripped by strong electric currents, quashing some hopes that the world is habitable. Communications specialist Beth Johnson is joined by co-author Dr. Cecilia Garraffo from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to talk about this disappointing news and its impact on the search for life beyond Earth, as well as her work in establishing AstroAI, "a cutting-edge research institute dedicated to advancing astrophysics through the application of artificial intelligence." (Recorded 21 March 2024.) Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad206a