SETI Institute

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That's the purpose of the exercise... to explore all the what-ifs and see how people would respond.

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

Recently identified exoplanet, BD+05 4868 b, is shedding its surface in a comet-like tail as it disintegrates under extreme stellar heat. SETI Live host Beth Johnson spoke with Dr. Marc Hon, who led the discovery of this exoplanet observed by NASA’s TESS. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Read more:

Not Just Aliens is the SETI Institute’s weekly series featuring scientists exploring astrobiology, heliophysics, planetary science, and more — expanding the search for life beyond Earth.

Text: She graduated with her PhD in geophysics and space physics from UCLA's EPSS department, where she studied the properties of the irregular satellites of the giant planets as well as fragmenting comets. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets.

SETI Institute logo. Graphics: (top) Black hole. (bottom) radio telescope dishes at the Allen Telescope Array. Background: Starry night sky.

She graduated with her PhD in geophysics and space physics from UCLA's EPSS department, where she studied the properties of the irregular satellites of the giant planets as well as fragmenting comets.

Learn more: www.seti.org/people/ariel...

Text: #notjustaliens. Ariel Graykowski, comets, citizen science. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of Ariel Graykowski.

Text: Dr. Ariel Graykowski is a Postdoctoral Fellow focused on the astronomy of small bodies, working with citizen scientists to monitor cometary activity through the Unistellar Network. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it.

Dr. Ariel Graykowski is a Postdoctoral Fellow focused on the astronomy of small bodies, working with citizen scientists to monitor cometary activity through the Unistellar Network. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Composite photograph of the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory at night with the plane of the Milky Way above, which is full of gas and dust and stars and nebulae.

Powerful telescopes are key to discovering new phenomena and even life on other planets. This week, @bipisci.bsky.social is “Scoping Out the Universe” with @allplanets.bsky.social, where they discuss exoplanets and other recent discoveries. #podcast 🧪 🔭

Listen here: bit.ly/46GvdRW

SETI Live record button logo. Text: Closest Exoplanet Yet? with Franck Marhis and Julien Girard. Background: Artist's concept of a gas giant planet orbiting at a distance from a bright star. Inset: Photos of Franck Marchis and Julien Girard.

Next #SETILive: Closest Exoplanet Yet?
TODAY, 8 August, 3:15 pm PDT

Join astronomers @allplanets.bsky.social and Julien Girard (STScI) as they discuss recent evidence of a Saturn-mass gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A—located just 4 light-years away. 🧪 🔭

WATCH LIVE: buff.ly/TplMAD5

PanelPicker | SXSW Conference & Festivals PanelPicker® is the official SXSW user-generated session proposal platform. Enter ideas and vote to help shape Conference programming for SXSW and SXSW EDU.

Vote for our #SXSW2026 panel here: participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sx...

SXSW video_final-credited This is "SXSW video_final-credited" by SETI on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

This immersive “Situation Room” experience puts you at the table with scientists, strategists, and educators to debate humanity’s next move — in real time. As 3I/ATLAS or some other interstellar object approaches Earth, you decide: respond, retreat, or do nothing? vimeo.com/1104628615/6...

SXSW logo. Text: 2026 March 12-18, Austin, Texas. Vote now. Panelpicker proposal. We're not alone. What are we going to do about it. Community voting August 5-24. SETI Institute logo. Background image: Photo of Earth with a composite of a Sputnik-1 type satellite above it.

We’re not alone. What are we going to do about it?

In July 2025, 3I/ATLAS, a fast-moving interstellar object, entered our solar system. It’s likely natural — like ’Oumuamua and Borisov — but what if it’s not? What if telescopes confirm it’s artificial? What if it’s sending us a signal? 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Diagram of the JWST's mirror configuration with one of its images of the Orion Nebula shown in the mirror frames. Streaks of pink light seem to fall from the image to the bottom of the frame. Text: Cosmic Dawn: The Untold Story of the James Webb Space Telescope. Friday, August 22, 2025, at 6:00 PM (PT). Followed by a live Q&A with planetary astronomer Dr. Mark Showalter. Register online to book your seat!

How do you collect light from stars that no longer exist?

📽️ Join us for a free virtual screening of "Cosmic Dawn" + a chat with astronomer Dr. Mark Showalter on Aug 22nd at 6PM PT.

🎟️ Sign up: tinyurl.com/2ersjbtd 🧪 🔭 🎥

Two images of a portion of Jupiter. Top: The image is banded in bright colors running from top to bottom in side-by-side swaths. Several jet streams and one cyclone can be seen through the distortion. Bottom: The same image but shown nearly in black and white with very few bands. The details in the clouds are much easier to perceive in some areas but washed out in others.

#PPOD: This is a very early attempt to process one of the perijove 73 images from the JunoCam onboard NASA's Juno spacecraft. Due to radiation effects, the PJ73 images are extremely noisy compared to normal JunoCam images. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Björn Jónsson 🧪 🔭

The Day the Earth Smiled - NASA In this rare image taken on July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn's rings and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame.

NOTE: The Earth is to the right, below the dense rings of Saturn and above the fuzzy outer one.

A higher resolution version can be found here: www.nasa.gov/image-articl...

SETI Live record button logo. Text: Orbital Oddity with Beth Johnson and Rosemary Pike. Background: Diagram of the ephemeris for a bunch of trans-Neptunian objects, with a thicker yellow one representing a newly discovered object. Inset: Beth Johnson and Rosemary Pike.

Next #SETILive: Orbital Oddity and Neptune
TODAY, 7 August, 2:30 pm PDT

Join us for a live conversation with Dr. Rosemary E. Pike, lead author of a new study that reveals the discovery of a rare and distant object orbiting in resonance with Neptune. WATCH LIVE: youtube.com/live/nYtiMYQ... 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Backlit photo of Saturn, showing the dense inner rings and fuzzier outer rings against the black of space. Taken by the Cassini spacecraft while in orbit around the gas giant planet.

#PPOD: On July 19, 2013, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft had a rare opportunity to image Saturn and, far in the background, Earth. This image spans about 651,591 kilometers across. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI 🧪 🔭

Learn more: www.nasa.gov/image-articl...

Rosalba Bonaccorsi

Her hypervelocity impact experiments involve ice target setups, biological and organic sample preparation, and contamination control to prepare for future life detection missions to the ocean worlds of our solar system.

Learn more: www.seti.org/people/rosal...

Text: Dr. Rosalba Bonaccorsi has expanded her work by developing analytical protocols for real-time in-situ life detection in planetary-like materials and extreme environments worldwide. Dr. Bonaccorsi has been the experimental lead of a novel project at the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range (AVGR) facility simulating ice grain plume ejecta for Icy Moons/Ocean Worlds science. Her hypervelocity impact experiments involve ice target setups, biological and organic sample preparation, and contamination control to prepare for future life detection missions to the ocean worlds of our solar system.

Dr. Bonaccorsi has been the experimental lead of a novel project at the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range (AVGR) facility simulating ice grain plume ejecta for Icy Moons/Ocean Worlds science.

SETI Institute logo. Text: Dr. Rosalba Bonaccorst, Research Scientist, Environmental Science/Astrobiology, #notjustaliens. Inset: Photo of Dr. Bonaccorsi.

Dr. Rosalba Bonaccorsi has expanded her work by developing analytical protocols for real-time in-situ life detection in planetary-like materials and extreme environments worldwide. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

From tracking a rare interstellar visitor to revealing hidden star systems, the SETI Institute is at the forefront of space science. Explore four recent stories showcasing our role in groundbreaking discoveries and global scientific collaboration. Read the stories: www.seti.org/news/seti-in... 🧪 🔭

Astronomers suspect there is at least one other star interacting with the material cast off by the central dying star, creating the abnormal appearance of this planetary nebula.

In this image, the red areas represent cool molecular gas, for example, molecular hydrogen.

Learn more: buff.ly/AnhRg9Q

There is one stretching from roughly 11 to 5 o’clock, another from 1 to 7 o’clock, and possibly a third from 12 to 6 o’clock. These outflows push gas toward the equatorial plane, forming a disk that appears to span from 9 to 3 o’clock.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 in the near-infrared shows a complex scene of multiple outflows expanding at different angles from a dying star at the center of the scene. There is one stretching from roughly 11 to 5 o’clock, another from 1 to 7 o’clock, and possibly a third from 12 to 6 o’clock. These outflows push gas toward the equatorial plane, forming a disk that appears to span from 9 to 3 o’clock.

#PPOD: NASA’s JWST’s view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 in the near-infrared shows a complex scene of multiple outflows expanding out at different angles from a dying star at the center of the scene. 🧪 🔭

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

A Unique Martian Mineral Offers Fresh Clues About Planet’s Past August 5, 2025, Mountain View, CA – New research published in Nature Communications identifies an iron sulfate on Mars that may represent a brand-new mineral. Sulfur is common on Mars and combines…

The discovery adds new insight into how heat, water, and chemical reactions shape the martian surface. The study included a region called Aram Chaos, located northeast of Valles Marineris, where ancient water drained away toward lower regions in the north.

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/a-uniqu...

A study led by Dr. Janice Bishop, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, has identified and characterized an uncommon ferric hydroxysulfate phase by combining laboratory experiments with Mars orbital observations.

While most sulfates are highly soluble and readily dissolve on Earth during rainfall, on the dry surface of Mars, these minerals can survive for billions of years and preserve important clues on the planet’s early history.

SETI Institute logo. Background: Image of Aram Chaos on Mars, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Text: New research published in Nature Communications identifies an iron sulfate on Mars that may represent a brand-new mineral.

PRESS RELEASE

New research published in Nature Communications identifies an iron sulfate on Mars that may represent a brand-new mineral. Sulfur is common on Mars and combines with other elements to form minerals, especially sulfates. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Yes, Uranus has a ring system.

Photo of Uranus taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing a blue orb that glows with blue aurorae at the nine and four o'clock positions. A faint ring can be seen around the planet, reaching nearly the edges of the image.

#PPOD: This image of Uranus’ aurorae was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 10 October 2022. These observations were made by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and include both visible and ultraviolet data. 🧪 🔭

Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, L. Lamy, L. Sromovsky

Training the Trainers Empowering South Africas Girl Guides with Space Science August 4, 2025, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute awarded a new education grant through its Support Technology, Innovation, Development and Education (STRIDE) program. Space Science for Youth in…

SETI Institute Director of Education Pamela Harman will lead Space Science for Girls in South Africa as PI, with Jessica Henricks as Co-I. “This STRIDE award leverages our expertise to bring space science activities and career awareness to GGSA,” said Harman.

Read more: www.seti.org/news/trainin...