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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

35:24

Not Planets, Not Stars: NASA Volunteers Doubled the...

SETI Live ·

2026/10/02

What happens when hundreds of thousands of volunteers team up with NASA to explore the sky? In the case of Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, thousands of new brown dwarfs. NASA citizen scientists have helped discover more than 3,000 brown dwarfs, effectively doubling the known population of these mysterious objects over the past decade. These discoveries are helping astronomers better understand the boundary between planets and stars, revealing rare ultra-cool worlds, extreme T subdwarfs, and even brown

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39:56

The Sounds of Intelligence: A Conversation with 2026...

SETI Live ·

2026/09/29

What does intelligence sound like? For decades, scientists studying whales and dolphins have uncovered remarkable evidence of sophisticated communication, social complexity, self-awareness, and cognition in cetaceans. Today, a new generation of research tools and analytical methods is opening an even deeper window into the sounds and possible language structures of these extraordinary marine mammals. Join SETI Institute President and CEO Bill Diamond for a fascinating conversation with 2026 Drake

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28:59

Lava Worlds & Nightside Volcanoes on K2-141 b

SETI Live ·

2026/07/28

How do you study volcanoes on a planet more than 200 light-years away? Join us for SETI Live as host Moiya McTier talks with planetary scientist Claire Marie Guimond about the extreme lava world K2-141 b—a rocky exoplanet so hot that parts of its surface may be covered in oceans of molten rock. Using advanced mantle convection models, Claire and her collaborators investigated how heat moves through the planet's interior and where volcanic hotspots may form—including on the planet's permanent

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37:48

Galactic Islands of Tranquility: How "Little Red...

SETI Live ·

2026/05/06

A newly identified class of distant galaxies—nicknamed "little red dots"—may be doing something extraordinary: quietly creating the raw ingredients for life. Join host Dr. Simon Steel as we explore groundbreaking new research from Dr. Remo Ruffini and Dr. Yu Wang from the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics Network (ICRANet), suggesting that these compact, enigmatic galaxies could act as "molecular islands," forming complex organic molecules in environments surprisingly calm compared

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37:16

The 45 Best Places to Look for Alien Life

SETI Live ·

2026/04/28

Where should we actually be looking for life beyond Earth? Astronomers have identified 45 Earth-like worlds that could be among the most promising places to search for biosignatures—chemical signs of life in distant atmospheres. Inspired by the idea of a real-life "Project Hail Mary," this research helps narrow the search for habitable planets and guides future telescopes toward the most compelling targets. Join SETI Institute planetary astronomer Dr. Franck Marchis and guests Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger

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44:38

SkyMapper is Live! Explore the Sky in Real Time

SETI Live ·

2026/04/14

Join us for a special episode of SETI Live as host Lauren Sgro sits down with astronomer and entrepreneur Franck Marchis to explore the newly launched SkyMapper platform—now open to the public. SkyMapper is a global, decentralized network of telescopes and all-sky sensors that connects professional observatories, citizen scientists, and classrooms around the world. In this live, interactive session, Lauren and Franck will go beyond the basics and show how SkyMapper works in real time—from navigating

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33:09

Planet Crash: Cosmic Collision Caught in Action

SETI Live ·

2026/04/07

Astronomers may have just witnessed the aftermath of a massive planetary collision in another star system—offering a rare glimpse into how worlds are destroyed… and possibly reborn. Join host Dr. Moiya McTier and guest Anastasios Tzanidakis (University of Washington) as they break down new evidence suggesting that two large planetary bodies recently crashed into each other. What does this tell us about how planets form and evolve? How common are these catastrophic events? And could collisions like

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47:27

From Moon to Mars: What Artemis II Means for the Future

SETI Live ·

2026/03/31

As NASA prepares to return humans to the Moon with Artemis II, what does it really take to live and work on the lunar surface? Join host Simon Steel and planetary scientist Pascal Lee as they explore the science and strategy behind humanity's next giant leap. From cutting-edge spacesuit design and testing to the challenge of choosing where astronauts will land, this conversation dives into what comes next for lunar exploration. We'll also explore: - The mystery and importance of permanently shadowed

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44:32

The Science of SETI: Inside the First Modern Textbook

SETI Live ·

2026/03/27

How do scientists actually search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Astronomer, professor, and Drake Award winner Jason Wright joins host Beth Johnson on SETI Live to discuss his new textbook, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Theory and Practice. The book brings together the science, methods, and history of SETI into a single framework for students and researchers. SETI has evolved dramatically in the past few decades—from early radio searches to modern investigations of

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42:24

The Titan Impact: Saturn's Moon System May Have Had a...

SETI Live ·

2026/03/24

Saturn's largest moon may have had a violent birth. New research led by SETI Institute scientist Matija Ćuk proposes that Titan formed when two earlier Saturnian moons collided and merged hundreds of millions of years ago. This dramatic event may explain several long-standing mysteries in the Saturn system—including Titan's unusual orbit, the origin of the strange tumbling moon Hyperion, and even the relatively young age of Saturn's iconic rings. Using computer simulations, researchers found that a

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32:51

Rethinking Radio: A New Way to Hear the Universe?

SETI Live ·

2026/03/20

Astronomers have unveiled a novel technique for detecting faint signals from stellar and exoplanetary systems — potentially opening new pathways in the search for extraterrestrial technology and natural astrophysical phenomena alike. In this episode of SETI Live, host Moiya McTier sits down with radio astronomer Cyril Tasse to explore the method described in Nature Astronomy. How does it work? Why is it different from traditional radio searches? And what kinds of signals could it reveal that we've

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34:46

Unistellar + Citizen Science (Part 8): 2025...

SETI Live ·

2026/03/17

Dr. Franck Marchis, Director of Citizen Science at the SETI Institute and co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of SkyMapper, and Dr. Lauren Sgro, Outreach Manager at the SETI Institute, update us about citizen science with the Unistellar network in partnership with the SETI Institute. They discuss making 15,000 observations in 2025, pending confirmation of a planet candidate, Comet 29P outbursting, observing rocket bodies, and preparing to observe Artemis II. They also answer your questions about

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34:35

Missing Link Found: A Breakthrough in Exoplanet Science

SETI Live ·

2026/03/03

Astronomers may have found the missing link in the story of the Milky Way's most common planets. In this SETI Live, host Moiya McTier is joined by exoplanet scientist John H. Livingston to explore a new discovery that helps connect the dots between small rocky worlds like Earth and the larger "sub-Neptunes" that dominate our galaxy. Using cutting-edge observations and statistical analysis, researchers have identified a population of planets that appears to bridge a long-standing gap in our

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39:17

Exoplanetary Poetry: AI, Chemistry, and Alien...

SETI Live ·

2026/02/24

Our Cosmic Consciousness residency artists daniela brill estrada, Bart Kuipers, and Julie-Michèle Morin, discuss an art-science collaboration that imagines how language might emerge from alien worlds. Hosts: Bettina Forget and Cosmic Consciousness residency advisor Gregory Betts. Join SETI AIR program Director Bettina Forget for a conversation with Cosmic Consciousness artists in residence daniela brill estrada, Bart Kuipers, and Julie-Michèle Morin, joined by residency advisor Gregory Betts

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35:13

Lost Pulsars Found? Breakthrough Listen's Deep Survey...

SETI Live ·

2026/02/17

Are we finally uncovering hidden pulsars at the center of the Milky Way? Join host Beth Johnson and William J. Welch Postdoctoral Fellow Karen Perez for a deep dive into a newly announced discovery of a possible pulsar near our galaxy's core. Using data from the Breakthrough Listen Deep Pulsar Survey and observations with the NSF Green Bank Telescope, researchers are probing one of the most extreme and mysterious regions in the Milky Way. The Galactic Center is a chaotic environment dominated by the

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39:23

Back to the Moon: How Artemis II Sets the Stage for...

SETI Live ·

2026/02/10

Humanity is heading back to the Moon—and Artemis II is the mission that makes it real. In this SETI Live, host Simon Steel is joined by Dr. Caitlin Ahrens, assistant research scientist at NASA Goddard, to explore how Artemis II will prepare the way for future astronaut missions. Artemis II isn't landing on the Moon—but it is laying the groundwork. From mapping the lunar environment to understanding how radiation, extreme cold, and surface conditions affect both spacecraft and humans, this mission is

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31:04

Life After Ice: 46,000-Year-Old Worms Wake Up

SETI Live ·

2026/02/03

In this SETI Live episode, host Simon Steel (Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center) chats with evolutionary biologist Philipp Schiffer (Worm Lab) about one of the most astonishing discoveries in modern biology: scientists have revived a microscopic worm that had been frozen in Siberian permafrost for roughly 46,000 years. These nematodes entered a state of cryptobiosis — a kind of biological "pause" — and came back to life when gently thawed in the lab. They didn't just wiggle; they fed,

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47:46

SETI@home Update: 21 Years of Citizen Science—and 100...

SETI Live ·

2026/01/27

For more than two decades, millions of volunteers turned their home computers into a planet-scale telescope, donating idle processing power to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence through SETI@home. That effort ended in 2020—but the data never stopped speaking. Now, UC Berkeley scientists have taken a fresh, rigorous look at the vast SETI@home archive and identified around 100 intriguing signals that warrant closer scrutiny. In this SETI Live, host Beth Johnson is joined by Eric Korpela (UC

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30:30

When Galaxies Collide: Euclid Reveals What Triggers...

SETI Live ·

2026/01/20

Using early data from the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope, astronomers have analyzed over one million galaxies to test a long-standing idea in astrophysics: that galaxy mergers help trigger the growth of supermassive black holes. In this SETI Live, host Dr. Moiya McTier will explore two new Euclid studies that combine vast sky surveys, machine learning, and multi-wavelength observations to uncover when and why active galactic nuclei (AGN) ignite. The results show that galaxies in the

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57:19

What to Expect in Space Science 2026

SETI Live ·

2026/01/13

2026 is a pivotal year for space science. From humans returning to the Moon to new telescopes opening more expansive windows on the universe, this year marks a turning point in how we explore space—and why it matters. SETI Institute communications specialist Beth Johnson and Senior Planetary Astronomer Franck Marchis will tour the biggest missions, milestones, and moments shaping space science in 2026. We'll look at crewed lunar exploration, robotic missions to asteroids and planets, next-generation

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