Nimbly combining the tools of art and science, SETI Institute Artist in Residence Xin Liu expresses what it means to be human through a diverse body of work that includes frost-coated sculptures, a bubbling fountain of crude oil, and a performance in outer space. In a new body of sculptures exhibited at Pioneer Works in New York City, the artist considers her fears around having her eggs frozen, creating warped, skeletal, frost-covered sculptures that propose a human body transformed through a c...
Mar 26, 2024•49 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Only eight times in history have scientists found an asteroid, tracked its trajectory toward Earth, and caught the resulting fireball on cameras. The latest of these eight events happened in January 2024, with the discovery of asteroid 2024 BX1, a mere three hours before impacting the atmosphere over Europe. And of course, the SETI Institute's own Dr. Peter Jenniskens was hot on the trail, flying to Germany to help search for meteorite fragments. Within the week, several pieces were discovered, ...
Mar 19, 2024•55 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Throughout human history, comets have fascinated us. They have gone from signs and portents of bad things to come to well-studied and even visited "dirty snowballs". Every year, observers search the skies, hoping to discover the Next Big Comet - Halley, Hyakutake, Hale–Bopp, McNaught. From SOHO and LINEAR to ATLAS and IRAS, numerous observatories have continued to add to the count of discovered comets. But it doesn't require expensive hardware or spacecraft to make similar observations from your...
Mar 12, 2024•36 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Phil Plait, aka the Bad Astronomer, has been communicating and correcting space science since the turn of the century (sorry, Phil!). His first book, "Bad Astronomy", tackled numerous misconceptions and myths about astronomy and space missions. His second book, "Death from the Skies!", took a look at a variety of ways the world will end. Now, in his latest book, "Under Alien Skies", Phil becomes a tour guide to the cosmos, taking us all on a trip through the universe to marvel at the wonders of ...
Mar 05, 2024•39 min•Season 2Ep. 8
With a first flight on April 19, 2021, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter broke ground on new capabilities for remote planetary missions. For nearly three years, the little drone far exceeded the originally planned technology demonstration of up to five flights, taking off and landing 72 times! Sadly, damage to the rotor blades has now left Ginny grounded, but the spacecraft has paved the way for future aerial explorers at Mars and, potentially, other space destinations. Join senior astronomer and Dire...
Feb 27, 2024•30 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Join us for an exciting SETI Live where we’ll explore the wonders beyond Earth. We’re excited to have Valery Lainey, a renowned researcher from the Paris Observatory in France, as our guest. Franck Marchis, our Senior Astronomer, will be guiding the conversation, sharing insights from the universe. It’s set to be an engaging event, and we hope you’ll be part of it! In a groundbreaking study published in Nature Journal, Valery Lainey and his team have unveiled a remarkable discovery about Saturn’...
Feb 20, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In a groundbreaking cosmic quest, the SETI Institute’s Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster (COSMIC) at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This cutting-edge technology is not a distinct telescope; it’s a detector. COSMIC searches for extraterrestrial signals and paves the way for future science using a copy of the raw data from the telescope’s observations. At the heart of COSMIC’s mission is pursuing the ...
Feb 13, 2024•26 min•Season 2Ep. 5
NASA’s Juno mission has observed mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Data for this discovery was collected by the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer aboard the spacecraft during a close flyby of the icy moon. The findings, which could help scientists better understand the origin of Ganymede and the composition of its deep ocean, were published on Oct. 30 in the journal Nature Astronomy. Federico Tosi, a Juno co-investigator from Italy’s...
Feb 06, 2024•30 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea. Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion ...
Jan 30, 2024•32 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Join us for an exclusive SETI Live event, as we take a first look at the next-generation telescope from Unistellar - the ODYSSEY. First introduced in 2017 with their eVscope, Unistellar has been a prominent collaborator with the SETI Institute since 2019. eVscopes have been used by schools, colleges, and the public to observe exoplanets, supernovae, and asteroids in a truly global network that continues to grow. Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center, and Franck Marchis, Co-founde...
Jan 17, 2024•38 min•Season 2Ep. 2
The new year has begun, and it's time for your favorite hosts - Franck Marchis and Beth Johnson - to run down some of the space science to look forward to in 2024. We will talk about launches, missions, celestial events (including a certain solar eclipse), and even SETI Institute's 40th anniversary. So come watch live and bring your questions!
Jan 09, 2024•45 min•Season 2Ep. 1
For our last SETI Live of 2023, senior astronomer Seth Shostak and communications specialist Beth Johnson have fun chatting about the "science" behind Santa's overnight journey. How can he deliver presents so quickly? How do the reindeer fly? And just how did NORAD's Santa Tracker come about? Join the holiday shenanigans and watch live! (Recorded 21 December 2023.)
Jan 08, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 38
In a new study published in the Astronomical Journal, researchers used the known population of exoplanets to set better thresholds for planetary effects on signals from ETIs (extraterrestrial intelligences). Megan Grace Li, a Ph.D. student at UCLA in UCLA SETI, conducted this research as a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates intern in the Breakthrough Listen project at the Berkeley SETI Research Center. Join Megan as she chats with Beth Johnson about her work and w...
Jan 07, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 37
On Earth, we understand how and where earthquakes happen due to the discovery of plate tectonics – the continental crust’s creation, movement, and destruction. However, when astronauts placed seismometers on the lunar surface during NASA’s Apollo mission era, those instruments recorded quakes on the Moon. In the 1970s, the Viking landers also recorded quakes on the surface of Mars. Since neither of these worlds has plate tectonics, scientists set about collecting more data to understand the phen...
Jan 06, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 36
The Universe is trying to kill us. We know an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, which was great for the rise of mammals, but how do we prevent a similar fate for humanity? Enter the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, NASA's first attempt at planetary defense by redirecting the orbit of an asteroid's moon. DART launched in November 2021, impacted Dimorphos in September 2022, and successfully changed the moonlet's orbit by 32 minutes. Since that successful test mission, the data from...
Dec 19, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Look at a Moon atlas, and you’ll see a land populated with the names of philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers. Great men like Plato, Aristarchus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Planck have been immortalized by naming Moon craters after them, cementing their names in the firmament. But – what about the women? Out of the 1,578 cataloged and named craters on the lunar surface, 32 are named after women – that is barely 2%. SETI Artist in Residence Program Director Bettina Forget found this per...
Dec 12, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Led by Anicia Arredondo, researchers used the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to investigate the metallic nature of the asteroid Psyche, believed to be rich in metals. SOFIA observed the entire surface of Psyche, using mid-infrared instruments to analyze its emissivity and porosity. The results confirmed that Psyche is a metallic body with some differences between the northern and southern poles. This study paves the way for NASA's mission to Psyche, launching in October...
Dec 05, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Launched on Sept. 8, 2016, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft traveled to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36) and collected a sample of rocks and dust from the surface. The spacecraft flew by Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, delivering the capsule containing the sample, which landed at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. Yesterday, NASA revealed the contents of the capsule live,...
Nov 28, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Up until now, the quest to find evidence of active volcanism on other worlds has been limited to our own solar system. We've definitively seen volcanoes erupting on Jupiter's moon, Io; we've possibly found evidence of geologically recent volcanism on Venus; and Mars has the largest volcano, although dormant, in Olympus Mons. With the advent of the JWST era, however, more possibilities have opened up. Colby Ostberg is an astronomer at UC Riverside and the lead author of an intriguing recent study...
Nov 21, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 31
The Apollo missions showed scientists that the craters on the Moon were from impacts rather than volcanoes, overturning previously held hypotheses. Now, new research using data collected by China's Chinese Chang’E 1 and 2 orbiters has discovered a hot spot under the surface. Using an instrument that made observations at microwave wavelengths, the team mapped out temperatures and found one particular suspected volcano, known as Compton-Belkovich, glowed in the microwave. However, surface evidence...
Nov 14, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Exoplanet discoveries have been piling up faster and faster over the last decade, limiting announcements of new discoveries to the strange, unusual, and unexpected. One unexpected type of planet is the possible Hycean world -- hot, water-covered worlds with hydrogen atmospheres larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune with sizable habitable zones. With the addition of JWST's capabilities, previously discovered exoplanets are now being analyzed for their atmospheric composition, and the results...
Nov 07, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Ask anyone interested in space science, and you will likely also find a person influenced in some way by science fiction, whether they grew up watching Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, watching movies, or reading books. The genre has grown and expanded over the centuries, reflecting and inspiring changes in the world, our technology, and even our dreams of exploration. Now, Ariel Waldman - filmmaker, explorer, and former NASA advisor - has written an accessible book featuring dozens of...
Oct 31, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 28
We follow up with SETI Artist in Residence Jonathon Keats about his project The Library of the Great Silence, an installation art project that addresses one of the implications of the Fermi Paradox. If the cosmos is only sparsely populated by intelligent beings that implies that at some point in their development almost all technological societies encounter a barrier they cannot cross. To counter such a dystopian prospect, Keats proposes an intergalactic lending library to research planetary fut...
Oct 24, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 27
An enigmatic cosmic entity has been consistently beaming radio waves to Earth every 22 minutes for over three decades, perplexing the scientific community. Identified as GPM J1839−10, this celestial body is believed to be a fading star emitting energy from its poles. Yet, intriguingly, its spin is so leisurely it seems implausible for its existence, marking it both incredibly stable and unusually slow. We’re thrilled to have Natasha Hurley-Walker, the leading radio astronomer from Curtin Univers...
Oct 03, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 26
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 i...
Sep 26, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 25
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 tec...
Sep 19, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 24
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 explorati...
Sep 12, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 23
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 ...
Sep 05, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 22
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 d...
Aug 29, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 21
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 signa...
Aug 22, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 20
