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SETI Live

SETI Live is a weekly production of the SETI Institute and is recorded live on stream with viewers on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly known as 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

science natural sciences

All Episodes

35:14

Can We Recognize Alien Life? Ocean Worlds and the...

SETI Live ·

2025/09/26

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

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41:10

Citizen Science in Astronomy (Part 7): Comet 3I/ATLAS...

SETI Live ·

2025/09/23

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

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38:11

Closest Exoplanet Yet? JWST Reveals Neighboring...

SETI Live ·

2025/09/19

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

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36:30

Orbital Oddity and Neptune: Resonant Object Hints at...

SETI Live ·

2025/09/16

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.)

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31:36

A Vaporizing Planet: Why BD+05 4868 b is Turning to Dust

SETI Live ·

2025/09/12

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

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34:01

Comet 3I/ATLAS: A Visitor from Beyond the Solar System

SETI Live ·

2025/09/09

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:

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36:25

How Ceres Froze Over: Modeling the Ice-Rich Crust of...

SETI Live ·

2025/07/22

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

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29:24

Dreams of Biogenesis: A Conversation with Artist...

SETI Live ·

2025/07/15

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

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34:11

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory First Look: Stunning Images...

SETI Live ·

2025/07/08

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

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38:26

LaserSETI Update: On Exhibit in London and a New...

SETI Live ·

2025/07/01

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

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30:43

Could Aliens See Us? What Earth’s Technosphere Reveals

SETI Live ·

2025/06/17

🌍 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

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32:31

Mars’ Ancient Carbon Cycle: How Rocks on Mars Tell...

SETI Live ·

2025/06/10

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

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28:12

Titan’s Missing Deltas? What Cassini Saw — and What...

SETI Live ·

2025/06/03

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

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29:39

A Cookbook of Life: How Chemistry Might Explain Life...

SETI Live ·

2025/05/27

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

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33:21

Red Planet, Blue Past: How Rain Shaped the Martian...

SETI Live ·

2025/05/20

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

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31:21

Tiny Asteroids, Big Threats: JWST Reveals a Hidden...

SETI Live ·

2025/05/13

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

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30:08

Is Intelligent Life Easy? Human-Like Life Probably...

SETI Live ·

2025/05/06

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

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44:39

Unistellar + Citizen Science Q&A (Part 6): Comet...

SETI Live ·

2025/04/29

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

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31:52

Chasing Martian Microbes: A New Technique for Finding...

SETI Live ·

2025/04/22

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

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33:38

Why is Mars Red? New Research Suggests Ferrihydrite...

SETI Live ·

2025/04/15

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

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115 results

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