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 in the Universe and to share that knowledge with the world.
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Nov 13, 2026 · 31:51
New JWST observations suggest that some of Neptune's small inner moons may be remnants of much larger icy worlds destroyed billions of years ago. Using JWST, researchers studied…
Nov 10, 2026 · 35:01
Astronomers may have found the first convincing evidence of a moon-like object beyond our Solar System — but calling it a "moon" turns out to be surprisingly complicated. Using…
Nov 6, 2026 · 30:44
Why do some solar eruptions blast into space while others never make it? SETI Institute heliophysicist Dr. Becca Robinson talks with Dr. Kathy Reeves of the Center for…
Nov 3, 2026 · 34:37
One of the coldest planetary-mass objects ever directly imaged has been hiding something unusual in its atmosphere: salt clouds. Known as the "Pink Planet," GJ 504 b is a…
Oct 30, 2026 · 36:43
NASA's next great observatory is here. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is designed to revolutionize our understanding of the universe, from dark energy to thousands of…
Oct 27, 2026 · 54:23
Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1976, Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to successfully land and operate on Mars, transforming our understanding of the Red Planet and launching a…
Oct 23, 2026 · 50:50
Are we searching for extraterrestrial intelligence the wrong way? For decades, SETI researchers have focused on finding narrowband radio signals that might stand out from the…
Oct 20, 2026 · 32:29
Could hazy exoplanet atmospheres be hiding important clues about alien worlds? Many potentially habitable planets orbit small, active stars that frequently unleash powerful…
Oct 16, 2026 · 41:17
The James Webb Space Telescope is transforming our understanding of exoplanets—but what happens when clouds get in the way? Astronomers have developed a new method to detect…
Oct 13, 2026 · 1:00:55
What happens after we discover evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence? The International Academy of Astronautics has just ratified the first major update to the SETI…
Oct 9, 2026 · 34:26
What can a visitor from another star system teach us about our own cosmic neighborhood? Join host Dr. Franck Marchis and guest Dr. Cecilia Tubiana (INAF) for a conversation about…
Oct 6, 2026 · 33:34
In this episode of SETI Live, Jeremy Webb joins Moiya McTier to discuss Life is But a Stream: The Distribution of Planetary Systems Along Stellar Streams and Their Properties.…
Oct 2, 2026 · 35:24
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…
Sep 29, 2026 · 39:56
What does intelligence sound like? For decades, scientists studying whales and dolphins have uncovered remarkable evidence of sophisticated communication, social complexity,…
Jul 28, 2026 · 28:59
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…
May 6, 2026 · 37:48
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…
Apr 28, 2026 · 37:16
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…
Apr 14, 2026 · 44:38
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…
Apr 7, 2026 · 33:09
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…
Mar 31, 2026 · 47:27
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…
Mar 27, 2026 · 44:32
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…
Mar 24, 2026 · 42:24
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…
Mar 20, 2026 · 32:51
Astronomers have unveiled a novel technique for detecting faint signals from stellar and exoplanetary systems — potentially opening new pathways in the search for…
Mar 17, 2026 · 34:46
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…
Mar 3, 2026 · 34:35
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.…
Feb 24, 2026 · 39:17
Our Cosmic Consciousness residency artists daniela brill estrada, Bart Kuipers, and Julie-Michèle Morin, discuss an art-science collaboration that imagines how language might…
Feb 17, 2026 · 35:13
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…
Feb 10, 2026 · 39:23
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…
Feb 3, 2026 · 31:04
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…
Jan 27, 2026 · 47:46
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…
Jan 20, 2026 · 30:30
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…
Jan 13, 2026 · 57:19
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…
Dec 30, 2025 · 37:02
We're going live with Dr. Cynthia Phillips, Europa Clipper Project Staff Scientist and Science Communications Lead, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to explore a surprising…
Dec 23, 2025 · 42:32
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…
Dec 19, 2025 · 44:44
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…
Dec 16, 2025 · 29:33
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…
Dec 12, 2025 · 39:09
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…
Dec 9, 2025 · 34:39
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.…
Dec 5, 2025 · 33:05
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…
Dec 2, 2025 · 36:36
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…
Nov 28, 2025 · 49:48
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 —…
Nov 25, 2025 · 40:09
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…
Nov 21, 2025 · 41:16
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…
Nov 18, 2025 · 43:22
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…
Nov 14, 2025 · 43:55
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,…
Nov 11, 2025 · 35:20
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…
Nov 7, 2025 · 41:31
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…
Nov 4, 2025 · 37:26
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…
Oct 31, 2025 · 31:22
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…
Oct 28, 2025 · 40:14
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…
Oct 14, 2025 · 34:43
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…
Oct 7, 2025 · 38:57
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…
Oct 3, 2025 · 41:20
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…
Sep 30, 2025 · 34:22
Join us for a 30-minute livestream with Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute, and Dr. Sanne Bloot, lead author of a recent…
Sep 26, 2025 · 35:14
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…
Sep 23, 2025 · 41:10
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…
Sep 19, 2025 · 38:11
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…
Sep 16, 2025 · 36:30
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…
Sep 12, 2025 · 31:36
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…
Sep 9, 2025 · 34:01
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…
Jul 22, 2025 · 36:25
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…
Jul 15, 2025 · 29:24
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…
Jul 8, 2025 · 34:11
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…
Jul 1, 2025 · 38:26
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…
Jun 17, 2025 · 30:43
🌍 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.…
Jun 10, 2025 · 32:31
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…
Jun 3, 2025 · 28:12
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…
May 27, 2025 · 29:39
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…
May 20, 2025 · 33:21
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…
May 13, 2025 · 31:21
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…
May 6, 2025 · 30:08
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…
Apr 29, 2025 · 44:39
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…
Apr 22, 2025 · 31:52
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…
Apr 15, 2025 · 33:38
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…
Apr 8, 2025 · 38:15
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…
Apr 1, 2025 · 26:20
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…
Mar 25, 2025 · 29:47
The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) mission has been a resounding success, from taking a sample of asteroid…
Mar 18, 2025 · 36:23
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…
Mar 11, 2025 · 36:55
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…
Mar 4, 2025 · 33:17
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.…
Feb 26, 2025 · 35:19
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,…
Feb 18, 2025 · 29:05
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…
Feb 12, 2025 · 34:20
New research using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope reveals that planet formation can occur in harsh, high-radiation stellar environments. This…
Feb 4, 2025 · 48:27
Happy New Year! 2024 brought us a lot of exciting space news, from a total solar eclipse to the launch of Europa Clipper and our celebration of 40 years as the SETI Institute.…
Dec 31, 2024 · 46:18
Join communications specialist Beth Johnson and historian Rebecca Charbonneau as they discuss Dr. Charbonneau's new book, Mixed Signals. The book examines the Cold War…
Dec 17, 2024 · 33:16
Get ready to giggle and make bad jokes. Uranus is back in the news. In 1986, Voyager 2 flew by the distant ice giant and made a strange discovery—the planet's magnetic field was…
Dec 10, 2024 · 28:41
Imagine that scene from every apocalyptic asteroid movie—you know the one. The scientist comes rushing in because a "new" asteroid has been detected and is on a collision course…
Dec 3, 2024 · 34:42
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…
Nov 26, 2024 · 53:41
Nearly 40 years ago, on November 20, 1984, the SETI Institute was incorporated with inaugural officers CEO Thomas Pierson and SETI scientist Jill Tarter. The goal was to provide…
Nov 19, 2024 · 42:21
OSIRIS-REx and the Hayabusa spacecraft have sample asteroids to understand what they're made of. NASA sent the DART mission to change the orbit of a tiny asteroid orbiting…
Nov 12, 2024 · 45:53
In September 2022, a small spacecraft called DART hit the surface of a tiny asteroid moonlet called Dimorphos. That spacecraft was the first test of a planetary defense system,…
Nov 5, 2024 · 33:45
The cosmos is full of huge questions: "What caused the Big Bang? What happens inside black holes? Are there other dimensions?" Scientists have been working to answer these…
Oct 29, 2024 · 26:50
In 1976, NASA's two Viking spacecraft touched down on Mars, becoming the first successful landers on the red planet. On board Viking 1, the craft carried several biological…
Oct 22, 2024 · 33:02
Suppose global warming raised temperatures so drastically that crops failed and caused world hunger. Would you support the idea of gene editing humans' skin cells so that…
Oct 8, 2024 · 37:02
Comets are small objects in our solar system made of ice and dust. As they get closer to the Sun in their orbits, the ices turn into gas and give off a glow that can be seen in…
Oct 1, 2024 · 38:45
Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. We've been finding potential exoplanets more often since the Kepler and TESS spacecraft were launched. But…
Sep 24, 2024 · 36:24
In the quest to find life beyond Earth, icy worlds within our solar system are full of potential. Europa, one of Jupiter's four largest (Galilean) moons, is one possible target…
Sep 17, 2024 · 35:26
There are supermassive black holes. There are stellar mass black holes. And based on the idea that galaxies evolve as they merge, there should be black holes in between --…
Sep 10, 2024 · 36:11
When a star at its life's end explodes, a debris cloud expands away from the now-dead star. The debris forms intricate and amazing structures in the expanding cloud and can cause…
Sep 3, 2024 · 35:04
Scientists now can work out what the atmospheres of worlds outside our solar system are made of. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, we have seen water, carbon dioxide,…
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