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.)

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.)

SETI Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Daedelus imagines the first 10,000 days after first contact with an alien civilization and puts those imaginings to music. Daedelus calls this post-detection era the 'Xenopocene', which also serves as the title of their newly released album. In this conversation with SETI AIR Director Bettina Forget, discover Daedelus' creative process and what inspired them during their two-year residency with the AIR program, plus listen in on this fascinating album that weaves influences of Gustav Holst, Sun Ra, Alice Deejay, and Amon Tobin. Recorded live 17 August 2023.

Listen to Xenopocene: https://daedelusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/xenopocene

Tune in to this week's SETI Live broadcast, beamed directly from Devon Island in the High Arctic. This exceptional locale serves as a remarkable analog, mirroring key environmental features of both the Moon and Mars to help prepare for their exploration. Dr. Pascal Lee and his team have embarked on their annual expedition to study the local geology and microbiology, and their relevance to the Moon and Mars. Beyond their scientific mission, they're putting spacesuits, drills, and cutting-edge technologies through rigorous trials, all destined for potential deployment in the human quest to explore the Moon and Mars.

Join SETI Institute CEO Bill Diamond as he discusses this exciting research and fascinating location with Dr. Lee, live via Starlink from the Arctic.

Recorded live on 10 August 2023.

Frontier Development Lab (FDL) is an applied artificial intelligence (AI) research accelerator fostering collaboration among researchers, scientists, and engineers across diverse fields. FDL aims to address paramount challenges in space and Earth science through cutting-edge AI and Machine Learning applications. FDL is a collaborative effort of the SETI Institute, NASA, the Department of Energy (DoE), and prominent private sector partners.

Discover the immense potential of AI for space exploration, Earth sciences, and humanity as SETI Institute CEO, Bill Diamond, engages in a compelling conversation with Jason Talley from the DoE's Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office. Together, they delve into the transformative possibilities that AI brings to these critical domains, pushing the boundaries of innovation and exploration.

Recorded live 3 August 2023.

In an unprecedented achievement, citizen scientists have set a new record for the SETI Institute and Unistellar, comprising the highest number of observers providing data on a single event. Amateur astronomers participating in the SETI Institute's and Unistellar's Cosmic Cataclysms program conducted a groundbreaking observation of supernova (SN) 2023ixf. The observations, which began just one hour after the supernova's first known appearance, have generated the longest continuous light curve of this supernova gathered by citizen scientists that has been published to date.

Join Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research, as he discusses this record-breaking citizen science project with researcher Lauren Sgro.

Press release: https://www.seti.org/press-release/record-breaking-team-citizen-scientists-contribute-data-pinwheel-galaxy-supernova

Research note: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ace41f

Recorded live 27 July 2023.

We will present the first on-sky demonstration of the Fibered Imager foR a Single Telescope (FIRST) instrument at the Subaru Telescope. Using techniques of aperture masking and spatial filtering, FIRST combines the power of spectro-interferometry to deliver high contrast capabilities and spatial resolutions beyond the reach of traditional coronagraphic instruments.

We will explain the 'pupil remapping' technique - the heart of the FIRST instrument - and its practical applications. This process divides the telescope pupil into sub-pupils, enabling simultaneous measurements of all baseline fringe patterns. Our researchers tested this instrument on two types of targets: a point source (Keho'oea - α Lyrae) and a binary system (Hokulei - α Aurigae), achieving a contrast and stability sufficient to study the close surroundings of those stars.

The successful demonstration of FIRST signifies a significant step forward for future interferometric instrumentation on extremely large telescopes, opening new observing capabilities in the visible wavelength range at the Subaru Telescope.

With the SETI Institute's Franck Marchis and Sebastien Vievard, exoplanet instrumentation scientist on SCExAO.

Recorded live 20 July 2023

If an alien civilization wanted to communicate with other civilizations throughout the Milky Way, the galaxy's core holds potential as a strategic site for a beacon. Until now, radio SETI has primarily dedicated its efforts to the search for continuous signals. A new study sheds light on the remarkable energy efficiency of a train of pulses as a means of interstellar communication across vast distances. This marks the first-ever comprehensive endeavor to conduct in-depth searches for these signals. Join us in discussion with Dr. Vishal Gajjar, a SETI Institute astronomer working at the Allen Telescope Array.

Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/acccf0

Recorded live 13 July 2023.

Meet Adriana Knouf, our newest artist in residence! Adriana engages with topics such as wet media, space art, satellites, radio transmission, non-human encounters, queer and trans futurities, and machine learning. Join SETI AIR Director Bettina Forget and Adriana as they talk about her project TX-1, which has flown on the International Space Station, TX-2, an experiment in speculative satellite construction, and how space travel can be made more accessible to those marked as transgender.

Recorded live 6 July 2023.

Gravitational waves play a cosmic symphony as they pass through our galaxy. This week, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Physics Frontiers Center released the results of 15 years of data in a set of papers published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. This research is the first evidence of gravitational waves at very low frequencies.

The team, comprised of 190 scientists, transformed our region of the Milky Way Galaxy into an immense gravitational-wave antenna using pulsars. NANOGrav's endeavor involved collecting data from 68 pulsars, fashioning a pulsar timing array—a distinctive type of detector.

In 2020, with over a decade of data, NANOGrav scientists detected hints of an additional enigmatic "hum" in the timing behavior of all the pulsars in their array. After exploring alternative explanations, they grew confident in the authenticity of this signal. Its detection became increasingly feasible with more extensive observations. However, at that stage, the gravitational-wave signature predicted by general relativity remained too faint to emerge. After fifteen years of pulsar observations, the evidence of gravitational waves, with periods spanning years to decades, emerges prominently.

Join Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center, as he discusses this groundbreaking research with NANOGrav team member and SETI Institute researcher Dr. Michael Lam.

Press release: https://www.seti.org/press-release/nanogravs-15-year-journey-reveals-cosmic-hum

Recorded live 29 June 2023

The search for life beyond Earth received a slight boost from new research published in Nature this month. Scientists working with data collected by NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn discovered evidence of phosphates in ice particles ejected via cryovolcanism into the E-ring structure by the tiny moon Enceladus. Although a mere 500 kilometers in diameter, Enceladus is a huge target in the quest for astrobiology in our solar system as beneath the outer ice shell lies a subsurface ocean about 10 km deep. That ocean is warmed via tidal heating, and plumes of water vapor escape through cracks in the surface.

Enter the Cassini mission, which spent over 13 years orbiting Saturn, collecting data on the gas giant, the rings, and various moons, including Enceladus. The spacecraft even flew through the plumes, using instruments such as the ion and neutral mass spectrometer (INMS) and the cosmic dust analyzer (CDA) to directly sample the material. Over the years, five of the six elements considered to be the building blocks for life as we know it - carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur - have been found within those ice grains. The recent discovery of the sixth element, in the form of phosphates, not only completes the set but provides an ingredient necessary for the creation of DNA and RNA.

While the discovery is not evidence of life on Enceladus, the potential for life in that subsurface ocean continues to grow. Please join lead author Frank Postberg, a planetary scientist at Freie Universität Berlin, and SETI Institute senior scientist Franck Marchis as they discuss the impact of this discovery, the deeper meaning for the search for life beyond Earth, and what's next for the research.

Press releases: https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/presse/informationen/fup/2023/fup_23_137-saturnmond-enceladus-ozean-phosphate/index.html

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-cassini-data-reveals-building-block-for-life-in-enceladus-ocean

https://www.swri.org/press-release/key-building-block-life-found-saturn-moon-enceladus

Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05987-9

Recorded 22 June 2023

Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center, joins us live from the Global Exploration Summit in Portugal. Last week Cabrol was co-author on a comment published in Nature Astronomy that explored the implications and potential scientific impacts on increased activity on Mars, specifically, human-crewed missions. How will the presence of people on Mars affect the search for past or present life and what planetary protection measures will be required to protect the integrity of scientific research as well as life here on Earth when crews return? Hosted by Dr. Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center.

Read more about the comment at seti.org: https://bit.ly/43WGnNU

Recorded 13 June 2023.

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.)

NASA's JWST revealed a groundbreaking discovery about the true nature of main belt comets. The surprising presence of water in a main belt comet is challenging our understanding of the solar system's origins. The recent study of this enigmatic comet ignited intriguing questions about its composition, history, and potential interstellar origins.

Join Mike Kelley, an astronomer from the University of Maryland, and Dr. Franck Marchis, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, for our next SETI Live. Mike and Franck will discuss the significance of this discovery and the implications for astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life as it connects cometary bodies and the delivery of water and organic molecules to Earth.

Press release: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-123

Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06152-y

Recorded live 8 June 2023.

A team of scientists and engineers from the SETI Institute, Impossible Sensing, NASA JPL, and other institutions will test their innovative robotic laser system on a deep-sea expedition aboard the E/V Nautilus. The mission, called InVADER (In-situ Vent Analysis Divebot for Exobiology Research), aims to advance technologies to explore, characterize and sample the seabed here on Earth. In particular, InVADER's Laser Divebot will find marine minerals and catalog biodiversity in the seabed faster and more affordably than ever.

Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she chats with SETI Institute research scientist and project lead Pablo Sobron about this new mission and the future of remote sensing.

Press release: https://www.seti.org/press-release/invader-mission-test-its-robotic-laser-divebot-deep-sea-expedition

There was a total solar eclipse in Australia on Thursday, April 20 (which was Wednesday, April 19 here in California).

Join SETI Institute CEO Bill Diamond with Madhulika (Lika) Guhathkurta, PhD Senior Advisor for New Initiatives, GSFC/HPD Program Scientist/Heliophysics, NASA HQ. Lika is in Australia for the eclipse and will talk to us about what we can learn from this phenomenon and why eclipses are so special. Recorded 18 April 2023.

A new NASA mission to Saturn's giant moon, Titan, is due to launch in 2027. When it arrives in the mid-2030s, it will begin a journey of discovery that could bring about a new understanding of the development of life in the universe. This mission, called Dragonfly, will carry an instrument called the Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer (DraMS), designed to help scientists hone in on the chemistry at work on Titan. It may also shed light on the kinds of chemical steps that occurred on Earth that ultimately led to the formation of life, called prebiotic chemistry.

Join Dragonfly Deputy PI and DRaMS instrument lead Melissa Trainer in a conversation with communications specialist Beth Johnson, as they discuss this upcoming mission and the potential science discoveries DRaMS could bring. Recorded on 13 April 2023.

More information: https://www.nasa.gov/dragonfly

As research teams around the world prepare for the launch of two separate missions to our 'sister planet' Venus, other scientists are spending their time looking through the data already collected by previous missions. Take, for example, the Magellan spacecraft, which mapped the surface of Venus from September 1990 through October 1994 using synthetic aperture radar. Last month, Science published a new paper detailing how scientists compared two radar images space eight months apart and discovered a volcanic vent that had grown and changed shape in that time period.

Join co-author Robert Herrick from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and communications specialist Beth Johnson as they discuss how the discovery was made, how it changes what we know of Venus, and what the new information could mean for future Venus missions. (Recorded live on 6 April 2023.

Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm7735

Author and book designer Rebecca Demarest will be featured on this episode of SETI Live, along with astronomer and SETI Research Scientist Paul Dalba. The two will delve into the upcoming Exotopia expedition, an experimental sci-fi narrative that invites participants to embark on imaginary journeys to study extraterrestrial life on actual exoplanets within our galaxy.

The forthcoming voyage will transport us to TOI-1452 b, a super-Earth exoplanet situated roughly 100 lightyears from Earth. TOI-1452 b orbits a red dwarf star within its Habitable Zone, an area where there is a possibility of liquid water on the planet's surface, given the presence of a protective atmosphere. Although scientists have some understanding of TOI-1452 b's characteristics, there is still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding this newly discovered world.

The Exotopia expedition will explore this enigma and offer travelers the opportunity to illustrate their own adventure using AI-generated art. Join us as we discuss the unique confluence of astronomy, art, sci-fi, and AI technology related to this distinctive storytelling experience.

When pondering the probability of discovering technologically advanced extraterrestrial life, the question that often arises is, "if they're out there, why haven't we found them yet?" And often, the response is that we have only searched a tiny portion of the galaxy. Further, algorithms developed decades ago for the earliest digital computers can be outdated and inefficient when applied to modern petabyte-scale datasets. Now, research published in Nature Astronomy and led by an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, Peter Ma, along with researchers from the SETI Institute, Breakthrough Listen and scientific research institutions around the world, has applied a deep learning technique to a previously studied dataset of nearby stars and uncovered eight previously unidentified signals of interest.

Join Senior Scientist Franck Marchis in conversation with lead author Peter Ma, co-author Leandro Rizk, and their supervisor, SETI Institute astronomer Cherry Ng, as they discuss the usefulness of machine learning, their recent findings, and the potential for the future of SETI. (Recorded live 23 March 2023.)

Paper: https://seti.berkeley.edu/ml_gbt/overview.html

Astronomers learn about the universe by looking up, but the closest, most fascinating and most important (to us) astronomical object is below our feet. As we discover more and more planets in our galaxy, the importance of understanding and protecting our own "pale blue dot" becomes ever more critical. Join Professor Adrienne Cool, astrophysicist at San Francisco State University and founder of Astronomers for Planet Earth and Jessica Agnos, co-founder, in a conversation about the universe, the Earth and why astronomers have a unique perspective on one very special planet. Recorded live on 8 March 2023.

The NASA DART mission impacted Dimorphos, the moon of near-Earth asteroid Didymos, on September 26, 2022, reducing its orbit by 33 minutes. Citizen astronomers around the world contributed crucial observations to quantify the impact's effects and understand our ability to alter an asteroid's path for planetary defense. Learn more from SETI Postdoctoral Fellow Ariel Graykowski on the implications for the future of planetary defense.

Nature paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05852-9

The Juno spacecraft launched on August 5, 2011, and arrived at Jupiter in 2016, where the mission began collecting data on the gas giant. In January 2021, NASA announced that the spacecraft's mission had been extended to September 2025. The extended mission's science campaigns expand on discoveries Juno has already made about Jupiter's interior structure, internal magnetic field, atmosphere (including polar cyclones, deep atmosphere, and auroras), and magnetosphere. Juno's extended mission also includes flybys of the moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io.

Join Dr. Scott Bolton, Director of the Space Science and Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Principal Investigator of Juno, as he chats with communications specialist Beth Johnson about this important mission, what we have learned, and what comes next.

More information: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/

Recorded live 16 February 2023.

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.)

New research suggests that a lack of a stable asteroid belt around these common, small, and cool stars may make their exoplanets less habitable for life. Join us in conversation with lead researcher Anna C. Childs to explore the implications of this research and the future of the search for alien life. Learn more about the most common type of star in our galaxy and the potential challenges in finding habitable exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs.

Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ac9052

Recorded live on stream on 9 February 2023.

A new comet, C/2022 E3 (ZTF), is making a rare visit to Earth, coming closer than it has in over 50,000 years. Stargazers around the world have admired its eerie green glow and bright tail of dust. Join SETI Institute Senior Planetary Astronomer, Dr. Franck Marchis, and Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Ariel Graykowski, as they discuss the significance of this comet and its impact on the search for life in space. Learn about comets and the night sky in this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Recorded live on 2 February 2023.

SETI Institute's Artist-in-Residence, Felipe Pérez Santiago, discusses the ambitious Earthling Project. Launched in 2020, the project collects songs from people around the world to create musical compositions representing humanity. These compositions will be sent into space with the help of the Arch Mission Foundation, a nonprofit preserving human knowledge for future generations. Tune in to hear from Santiago and SETI AIR Director Bettina Forget, and listen to the world sing in harmony on the Earthling Project - Songs for Outer Space.

Recorded live on stream 26 January 2023.

Using data from NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, researchers at the University of Montreal found evidence that two exoplanets orbiting a star 218 light-years away are "water worlds," where water makes up a large fraction of the entire planet. These planets are unlike planets in our solar system -- they were previously believed to be rocky Earth-like planets but instead are really water worlds.

Listen to Franck Marchis in conversation with lead researcher Caroline Piaulet to learn about these new findings.

Press release: https://exoplanetes.umontreal.ca/en/universite-de-montreal-astronomers-find-that-two-exoplanets-may-be-mostly-water/

This episode was recorded live on 19 January 2023.

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SETI Live is a weekly production of the SETI Institute and is recorded live on stream with viewers on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Twitch. Guests include astronomers, planetary scientists, cosmologists, and more, working on current scientific research. Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity's quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the Universe and to share that knowledge with the world.

We have to admit that 2022 was an impressive year for space science, what with JWST starting to collect science data and even releasing early results, the launch and return of the Artemis 1 mission, the DART mission, a NASA Juno flyby of Europa, and the end of the NASA InSight lander mission. And that was just NASA's part of the activity! China, Japan, and South Korea all launched missions, while commercial launches and space tourism continued to increase.

2023 is definitely shaping up to match. There are more potential mission launches for NASA, ESA, China, India, and Japan; a total solar eclipse; a sample return; more Juno flybys; and even a comet or two that can be seen with the unaided eye. Join SETI Institute senior scientist Franck Marchis and communications specialist Beth Johnson as they take a look at what's in store for the new year.

Recorded live 4 January 2023.

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.)

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

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.)

🌍 What Will Earth Look Like in 1000 Years? Will humanity collapse, thrive, or colonize the stars—and could alien civilizations detect us? Join senior planetary astronomer Dr. Franck Marchis for a fascinating conversation with Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra, astrobiologist and lead author of a groundbreaking study exploring 10 possible futures for Earth's technosphere—the global network of our technologies—and what these futures mean for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). 🚀 From stable zero-growth societies to interstellar expansion, Dr. Haqq-Misra's team models how Earth's trajectory might look over the next millennium and what clues we might be sending into space. Could future Earth resemble a sci-fi utopia—or become invisible to alien observers? 👽 Learn how technosignatures like atmospheric pollution (yes, even nitrogen dioxide!) could help us find—or hide from—civilizations across the galaxy. 🔭 Whether you're into space exploration, science fiction, or the future of humanity, this interview dives deep into the cosmic implications of our technological choices. (Recorded live 12 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.)

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.)

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.)