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PODCAST

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

42:32

Earth 2.0? Maybe Not. Intelligent Life Might Be Far...

SETI Live ·

2025/12/23

Get ready for a fascinating deep dive into one of the biggest questions in astrobiology: How common are biological extraterrestrial intelligences in the Milky Way? Host Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research, is joined by Manuel Scherf and Helmut Lammer (Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences) to explore new research that challenges long-held assumptions about "Earth-like" planets and what it really takes for a world to support complex life. Recent work

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44:44

SkyMapper: Map All the Sky, All the Time

SETI Live ·

2025/12/19

In a special bonus SETI Live, communication specialist Beth Johnson welcomes astronomer and entrepreneur Franck Marchis to introduce SkyMapper, a new global network of smart telescopes and all-sky sensors designed to open the universe to everyone. SkyMapper brings together professional observatories, citizen astronomers, and classrooms into a single, decentralized platform. It enables real scientific discovery — from tracking satellites and meteors to monitoring comets and transient events in real

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29:33

Baby Moons in the Making? The Discovery of a...

SETI Live ·

2025/12/16

On this episode of SETI Live, host Moiya McTier welcomes two leading researchers—Gabriele Cugno (University of Zürich) & Sierra L. Grant (Carnegie Institution for Science)—to dive into an extraordinary discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): a carbon-rich, moon-forming disk around the distant exoplanetary object CT Cha b, some 625 light-years away. What exactly is a "moon-forming disk"? Why is this discovery a game-changer for our understanding of how moons — and ultimately habitable

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39:09

The Moon that Could Support Life: What Cassini...

SETI Live ·

2025/12/12

Join host Beth Johnson for a fascinating episode of SETI Live, featuring planetary scientists Dr Georgina Miles and Dr Carly Howett from the University of Oxford. We'll be unpacking their groundbreaking study showing that Enceladus — one of Saturn's icy moons — may harbor a stable subsurface ocean capable of supporting life. 📄 For more info: The study "Endogenic heat at Enceladus' north pole" has just been published in Science Advances: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx4338 Official

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34:39

Where Water Boils the Sky: Steam Worlds and the...

SETI Live ·

2025/12/09

What happens when a planet is full of water—but too hot for oceans? Meet the "steam worlds," exotic exoplanets wrapped in thick water vapor and boiling at thousands of degrees. These strange worlds may be far from habitable, but they're reshaping how scientists think about planets, water, and where life might exist. In this episode of SETI Live, host Beth Johnson talks with Artem Aguichine of the University of California, Santa Cruz, about his new research modeling the interiors and atmospheres of

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33:05

TRAPPIST‑1 e Revealed: Peering Inside an Exoplanet's...

SETI Live ·

2025/12/05

Join SETI Live host Moiya McTier with Néstor Espinoza (STScI) and Ana Glidden (MIT) for a deep dive into the latest JWST observations of TRAPPIST‑1 e, one of the most tantalizing Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of a nearby star. In this episode, we explore: 🛰 How JWST is peering into TRAPPIST-1 e's atmosphere (or lack thereof). 🔵 Why the planet almost certainly doesn't have a thick hydrogen envelope, ruling out a mini-Neptune-like world. 🪨 The emerging hints of a secondary, heavier

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36:36

Welcome Moiya! A New Host Joins SETI Live

SETI Live ·

2025/12/02

Dr. Moiya McTier is an astrophysicist, folklorist, and science communicator in New York City who loves planets, galaxy evolution, her cat named Cosmo, and old stories about space. She is also the latest addition to our rotating cast of hosts for SETI Live! Join communications specialist Beth Johnson for an interview to introduce Moiya to the community. So please bring your questions and help us welcome her to the team! (Recorded live 3 November 2025.)

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49:48

Comet 3I/ATLAS Perihelion Update

SETI Live ·

2025/11/28

What happens when a visitor from another star system drops by? Join planetary astronomers Franck Marchis and Ariel Graykowski for a special SETI Live all about Comet 3I/ATLAS — only the third known interstellar object ever detected! Astronomers around the world, including citizen scientists in the Unistellar Network, are racing to learn as much as possible about this rare cosmic traveler. 3I/ATLAS is swinging through our neighborhood, reaching perihelion on October 30, 2025, just inside the orbit of

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40:09

This Microbe Breathes Two Ways! The Bacteria That...

SETI Live ·

2025/11/25

Join host Beth Johnson on SETI Live as she talks with Dr. Eric Boyd from the University of Montana about a groundbreaking discovery: microbes that can breathe in two ways at once! These extraordinary bacteria simultaneously perform both aerobic (oxygen-based) and anaerobic (sulfur-based) respiration, challenging everything we thought we knew about cellular life. Discover how this incredible metabolic flexibility reshapes our understanding of life on Earth, inspires biotechnology innovations, and

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41:16

The Hidden Ocean of Ariel: Tidal Forces and the Case...

SETI Live ·

2025/11/21

Could Uranus's moon Ariel have once harbored a vast, deep ocean beneath its icy crust—perhaps even one that still lingers today? In this episode of SETI Live, host Beth Johnson welcomes Caleb Strom (University of North Dakota) and Alex Pathoff (Planetary Science Institute) to discuss new research revealing evidence that Ariel may have once held a subsurface ocean over 170 kilometers deep. Using geological mapping and tidal‐stress modeling, the team shows how ancient fractures and ridges on Ariel's

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43:22

Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: An Environmental History...

SETI Live ·

2025/11/18

Join Beth Johnson for a thought-provoking conversation with Professor Dagomar Degroot, an environmental historian at Georgetown University. They delve into the themes of his new book, Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean, set to be released on October 28, 2025. Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean offers a sweeping history of human encounters with the solar system. Professor Degroot reimagines the solar system as a dynamic network of interconnected systems, exploring how cosmic events and environments have influenced

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43:55

Do Aliens Speak Physics? And Other Questions about...

SETI Live ·

2025/11/14

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

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35:20

Birth of Planets: JWST Spots Hot Mineral Condensation...

SETI Live ·

2025/11/11

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

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41:31

Space Weather Alert! Sunspots, Coronal Holes, and...

SETI Live ·

2025/11/07

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

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37:26

Hidden Habitability: What Dawn Discovered Beneath...

SETI Live ·

2025/11/04

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

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31:22

Lunar Impact? Asteroid 2024 YR4 and the Risk to the Moon

SETI Live ·

2025/10/31

Join host Dr. Franck Marchis and guest Dr. Andy Rivkin (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory) for a discussion on asteroid 2024 YR4 and its potential impact on the Moon. Thanks to new observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists have refined the asteroid's orbit and determined there is about a 4% chance it could strike the Moon in December 2032. While there is no risk to Earth, a lunar impact could create a crater nearly a kilometer wide and send debris into

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40:14

When We Find Life: Science, Society, and Survival

SETI Live ·

2025/10/28

What happens after we discover life beyond Earth? The question is no longer "if," but "when"—and how humanity responds could shape our future. Host and planetary astronomer Franck Marchis welcomes Martin Dominik, one of the authors of a new white paper on the societal, political, and philosophical challenges we'll face once alien life is confirmed. From public communication and policy to our collective sense of identity, this discussion explores how to prepare for the biggest discovery in human

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34:43

Worlds of Fire: What Molten Exoplanets Teach Us About...

SETI Live ·

2025/10/14

Join communications specialist Beth Johnson and Dr. Charles-Édouard Boukaré (York University) as they dive into new research on molten rocky exoplanets—worlds so hot that their surfaces are oceans of magma. This international study, led by York University, sheds light on how these fiery planets form, evolve, and what their extreme environments can teach us about the diversity of planetary systems. From the physics of molten mantles to what telescopes like JWST might reveal about their atmospheres,

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38:57

Life in Titan’s Ocean? The Microscopic Possibility of...

SETI Live ·

2025/10/07

Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is a world of methane rivers and lakes, icy boulders, sandy dunes, and a vast subsurface ocean. Could this distant world harbor life? A new study led by Dr. Antonin Affholder, now a fellow at ETH Zurich, suggests that Titan’s ocean might support life—but only in the tiniest amounts, making it incredibly hard to find. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she chats with Dr. Affholder to explore what this means for the search for life beyond Earth, why organics

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41:20

LaserSETI Live Puerto Rico Edition: A New Observatory...

SETI Live ·

2025/10/03

Join us for a special livestream featuring Dr. Abel Méndez from the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, hosted by SETI Institute researcher Dr. Lauren Sgro. They will discuss the latest on LaserSETI, the all-sky project searching for optical technosignatures, including exciting updates from the new installation in Puerto Rico. This special “LaserSETI Live” will also dive into Méndez’s new study on the legendary Wow! Signal, in which he and his team revisit one of the most intriguing mysteries in

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136 results

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