SETI Live

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.)

🌍 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.)

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.)