SETI Institute

Buzz Aldrin photographed on the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. Buzz is wearing a complete spacesuit. Neil can be seen in the face shield's reflection.

The moon landing conspiracy theory seems like old intrigue, but it’s estimated that as many as 10% of Americans still don’t believe we landed on the moon. We consider why the “moon hoax” belief has been difficult to shake on the latest @bipisci.bsky.social 🧪 🔭

Listen here: buff.ly/LJul9Ot

Asteroid 2024 YR4 will not impact the Moon Last year, an approximately 60 metre near-Earth object captured global attention. For a brief period, asteroid 2024 YR4 became the most dangerous asteroid discovered in the last 20 years. While an…

...able to rule out any chance that the asteroid could impact Earth’s Moon on 22 December 2032.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Micheli (ESA NEOCC)

Learn more: www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

Pixelated image with four darker pixels circled in green, representing asteroid 2024 YR4 as seen by JWST in infrared.

#PPOD: JWST successfully observed the extremely faint near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 (circled in green) on 18 February 2026 with its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).

By analyzing the asteroid’s position relative to background stars whose locations are very well known, astronomers were... 🧪 🔭

So many!

Me (Beth Johnson) - scicomm
Nathalie Cabrol - astrobiology
Victoria Meadows - exoplanets
Chenoa Tremblay - technosignatures
Sofia Sheik - technosignatures
Becca Robinson - heliophysics
Janice Bishop - Martian geology
Coral Clark - EPO
Karen Perez - radio astronomy

And that's but a few...

SETI Institute logo. A pink starry background. Silhouette of a women, colored in pink sparkles. Text: International Women's Day, 8 March.

Today, we celebrate International Women’s Day and the women helping lead humanity’s search for life in the universe.

At the SETI Institute, women researchers are studying exoplanets, analyzing radio signals, exploring planetary environments, and sharing the wonder of science with the world. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Sees Martian ‘Spiderwebs’ Up Close A hilly landscape that looks like spiderwebs when viewed from orbit holds clues to the history of water on ancient Mars.

These pea-sized nodules likely formed billions of years ago as groundwater evaporated, leaving minerals behind. NASA’s Curiosity rover photographed these features on Aug. 21, 2025, while exploring geologic formations known as boxwork.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Learn more: buff.ly/j7ABnpX

Over time, those minerals hardened into ridges while the surrounding rock—lacking that reinforcement—was slowly worn away by wind.

Up close, those mineral deposits appear as tiny bumps embedded in the rock.

Five panel close-up stitched view of a rock formation on the surface of Mars, as seen by the Curiosity rover. The formation is a light, sand color and is covered in pea-sized nodules.

#PPOD: From orbit, parts of Mars look like sprawling spiderwebs etched across the hillsides. These patterns may record a time when groundwater flowed through large fractures in the rock, leaving minerals behind. 🧪 🔭

Text: The Climate Chronicles, Episode #12, The Natufian Wager. Host Dagomar Degroot. Listen on theclimatechronicles.com. Graphic of a microphone. Top photo: A field of grain in the sun. Bottom photo: Dagormar Degroot against the background of blue, white, and red bars representing the changes in annual average temperatures.

The Climate Chronicles with @dagomardegroot.bsky.social is back! 🧪

Season three takes us "Into the Holocene."

In the first episode, The Natufian Wager, Professor Degroot investigates one of the greatest turning points in human history: the dawn of agriculture.

Listen here: buff.ly/dSqQf5w

Lost Pulsars

In a recent SETI Live conversation, @planetarypan.bsky.social spoke with William J. Welch Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Karen Perez, lead author of a new study reporting the possible discovery of a pulsar candidate near the Galactic Center. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/lost-pu...

...an otherwise ultra-narrow signal, spreading its power across more frequencies and making it more difficult to detect in traditional narrowband searches.

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/why-set...

PRESS RELEASE
A new study by researchers at the SETI Institute suggests stellar “space weather” could make radio signals from extraterrestrial intelligence harder to detect. Stellar activity and plasma turbulence near a transmitting planet can broaden... 🧪

First glimpse of comet 3I/ATLAS from Juice science camera First glimpse of comet 3I/ATLAS from Juice science camera

The camera, named JANUS, took this image on 6 November 2025, just seven days after the comet made its closest approach to the Sun. At the time, Juice was about 66 million km away from the comet.

Credit: ESA/Juice/JANUS

Learn more: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

...and the relative direction of the Sun (yellow). While 3I/ATLAS is a visitor from interstellar space, travelling from outside the Solar System, its behaviour is completely in line with that expected from a ‘normal’ comet.

A long tail stretches away from the comet, and we see hints of rays, jets, streams and filaments.

The inset in the image shows the same data, but processed to highlight the coma structure. The arrows in the top left indicate the direction in which the comet was moving (blue)...

A white, glowing egg-shaped object lies in the centre of the black-and-white image, on a dark, starry background. Glowing streaks spread upwards from the object. In the top left, a yellow arrow marked ‘Sun’ points straight down, and a blue arrow marked ‘Velocity’ points towards the 7 o’clock direction. In the bottom left, an inset shows the same object on a lighter grey starry background, filled with ragged-edged, concentric egg shapes gradiented black-to-white.

#PPOD: This striking image from the science camera on ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) shows interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS spewing dust and gas. The tiny nucleus of the comet (not visible) is surrounded by a bright halo of gas known as the coma. 🧪 🔭

Check out our latest #SETILive #podcast! Moiya talks with Dr. John Livingston about mini-Neptunes, why they are interesting, and how they could explain the gap in planetary formation theories. Listen to the full episode: feeds.libsyn.com/462636/rss 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Webb Maps Uranus’ Upper Atmosphere - NASA NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provided the first vertical view of Uranus’s ionosphere in this image released on Feb. 19, 2026, revealing auroras shaped by

Uranus has the strangest magnetosphere in the Solar System. It is tilted and offset from the planet’s rotation axis (and this planet already rolls around the Sun nearly on its side), which means auroras move across the surface in complex ways.

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

Getting a look at the structure of the region where the atmosphere interacts strongly with the planet’s magnetic field is giving us the most detailed portrait yet of where its auroras form, how the magnetic field influences them, and also how Uranus’s atmosphere has continued to cool since the 1990s

#PPOD: NASA’s JWST provided the first vertical view of Uranus’s ionosphere in this image released on Feb. 19, 2026, revealing auroras shaped by its tilted magnetic field.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, STScI, P. Tiranti, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) 🧪 🔭

Interesting post!

Pictures of Distant Worlds

The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, now in its 27th year.

More info: www.seti.org/events/pictu...

#bayarea

On Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2026, at 7 pm (PST), Dr. Bruce Macintosh (Director of the University of California Observatories) will give a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture entitled:

"Pictures of Distant Worlds"

in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos (see directions below) 🧪

NASA’s Webb Examines Cranium Nebula - NASA Science Two heads are better than one in the latest images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which reveal new detail in a mysterious, little-studied nebula

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Learn more: science.nasa.gov/missions/web...

...inspiring its nickname, the “Exposed Cranium” nebula.

The nebula appears to have distinct regions that capture different phases of its evolution — an outer shell of gas that was blown off first and is mostly hydrogen, and an inner cloud with more structure that contains a mix of gases.

#PPOD: Two heads are better than one in the latest images from NASA’s JWST, which reveal new details in a mysterious, little-studied nebula surrounding a dying star.

Nebula PMR 1 is a cloud of gas and dust that bears an uncanny resemblance to a brain in a transparent skull... 🧪 🔭

Dale Andersen Antarctic Field Season 18-19 February 2026

Dale Andersen Antarctic Field Season 🧪 🔭
18-19 February 2026

UPDATE #14
Eclipse Watching And Base Camp Packing

UPDATE #15
Return Overland Traverse From Lake Untersee

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/dale-an...

The SETI Institute’s premier space science celebration returns! Mark your calendars for May 14 and join us in Mountain View at the 2026 #DrakeAwards -- a night of bold science, meaningful connection, and inspiration at the frontier of cosmic exploration.

Early Bird pricing begins March 18. 🧪 👩‍🔬

New Discoveries on Mars and Habitability By Nathalie A. Cabrol, Astrobiologist & Science Director, Carl Sagan Center, SETI Institute.

Two NASA rovers have strengthened the case that ancient Mars may have supported life. These discoveries show that ancient Mars had complex organic chemistry, long-lasting water systems, and mineral environments capable of preserving potential signs of life. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Learn more:

Namib Desert Namib Desert

This is Dune 45, a popular tourist stop on the way to and from Sossusvlei. In this image, there appears to be some shadow on the western side. From this, we can deduce that the image was acquired during the late morning.

Credit: KARI/ESA

Learn more: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...