SETI Live

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 and human perspective begins, to reflect on whether alien minds might think mathematics differently, sense reality differently, or have radically different "basic science." Join us on SETI Live as communications specialist Beth Johnson speaks with co-author Daniel Whiteson about the surprising places he found ambiguity, what assumptions underlie science as we know it, and what our notion of physics might reveal — or blind us to — when grappling with alien intelligence. Learn more about the book: https://sites.uci.edu/alienphysics/ (Recorded live 16 October 2025.)

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 physics, and the cosmic "baby book" of a solar system in the making. ESO press release: https://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/news/eso2512/  Nature paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09163-z (Recorded live 9 October 2025.)

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 a deep dive into the science of solar storms, space weather, and the mysteries of our nearest star. Aurora videos courtesy of Vincent Ledvina, The Aurora Guy, https://theauroraguy.com/  Participate in citizen science at https://aurorasaurus.org/  Learn more about the MUSE mission: https://muse.lmsal.com/ (Recorded live 7 October 2025.)

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 live 2 October 2025.)

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 JWST contributed to narrowing the odds, what such an impact would mean for lunar science, and how planetary defense research helps us better understand and prepare for near-Earth objects. NASA Blog: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/planetary-defense/2025/06/05/nasas-webb-observations-update-asteroid-2024-yr4s-lunar-impact-odds/ (Recorded live 25 September 2025.)

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.

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.

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 answer these questions. (Recorded live 4 September 2025.)

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 legacy in radio astronomy with today's cutting-edge search for signals of life beyond Earth, so don't miss this livestream! (Recorded live 30 August 2025.)

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 even UV light interact in these experiments, and how this research helps us refine the search for biosignatures across the solar system. (Recorded live 21 August 2025.)

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 unprecedented opportunity to study the geology of an alien world, and upcoming JWST observations could even reveal the chemical makeup of its interior. (Recorded live 17 July 2025.)

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: Dr. James Davenport, Research Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, will provide context for Comet 3I/ATLAS by comparing it to previous interstellar visitors like ‘Oumuamua and Borisov. Dr. Wael Farah, SETI Chair and Project Scientist for the Allen Telescope Array, offers insight into how radio telescopes are aiding the search for interstellar interlopers. Dr. Ariel Graykowski, Postdoctoral Fellow at the SETI Institute, who studies comets and small Solar System bodies and works with the Unistellar citizen science network on observations. Don't miss this chance to learn how astronomers are racing to study this rare visitor before it slips back into the void. (Recorded live 11 July 2025.)

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 down, concentrating impurities as it solidified and creating a gradient from ice-rich surface layers to a rockier interior. (Recorded live 10 July 2025.)

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://incubatorartlab.com/ (Recorded live 3 July 2025.)

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 (LSST), in which it will ceaselessly scan the sky nightly for 10 years to precisely capture every visible change." Join SETI Institute communications specialist Beth Johnson and CEO of the LSST Discovery Alliance Beth Willman in a special SETI Live event, talking about these First Look images, the future of the LSST mission, and what all the new data could mean for astrobiology and planetary defense. Press release: https://rubinobservatory.org/news/first-imagery-rubin (Recorded live 1 July 2025.)

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 first two sites were in California, at the Ferguson Observatory in Sonoma County, and on Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii. Last year, a third site went online in Sonora, Arizona; now, a new station is being installed in Puerto Rico. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson, Simon Steel (Deputy Director, Carl Sagan Center) and Outreach Manager for LaserSETI Lauren Sgro to talk about the London exhibition, the new observatories, and what this all means in the search for life beyond Earth. (Recorded live 26 June 2025.)

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 dramatic climate shift from a warm, wet environment to the cold, arid planet we see today. These findings provide evidence that ancient Mars was habitable and offer insights into the fragility of planetary climates. Dr. Tutolo emphasizes the parallels between Mars' atmospheric changes and current efforts on Earth to mitigate climate change by converting anthropogenic CO₂ into stable carbonates. Understanding the mechanisms of carbon sequestration on Mars could inform strategies to address climate challenges on our own planet. (Recorded live 5 June 2025.)

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 suggests that Titan's geological and climatic processes differ significantly. This discovery opens new avenues for research into Titan's sediment transport mechanisms and its potential to preserve signs of past environmental conditions or even life. (Recorded live 29 May 2025.)

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 effectively, and bring us one step closer to answering one of humanity's biggest questions: Are we alone? (Recorded live 15 May 2025.)

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.)