SETI Institute
LightNews LightNews
banner
setiinstitute.bsky.social
SETI Institute
@setiinstitute.bsky.social
16K followers 370 following 1.7K posts
Our mission is to lead humanity’s quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and share that knowledge.
Posts Replies Media Videos
setiinstitute.bsky.social
The SETI Institute recently hosted the Joint IRIS and MUSE Science Team Meeting, bringing together more than 50 solar physicists from around the world for an intensive week of collaboration and discovery. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/seti-in...
SETI Institute Hosts Joint IRIS–MUSE Solar Science Team Meeting
www.seti.org
November 11, 2025 at 12:20 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Want good news on the climate front? The world is making immense strides in harnessing solar energy. Some of the leaders might surprise you (we see you, Texas!) This week, author @billmckibben.bsky.social on our sunnier future on @bipisci.bsky.social. 🧪

Listen bigpicturescience.org/episodes/sol...
A bright sunny day over a field with rows of solar panels stretching back to the edge of the clearing.
November 10, 2025 at 8:42 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: Astronomers from the @icrar.bsky.social have created the largest low-frequency radio colour image of the Milky Way ever assembled. This spectacular new image captures the Southern Hemisphere view of our galaxy... 🧪 🔭

Credit: S. Mantovanini & the GLEAM-X team
November 10, 2025 at 4:01 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
When we imagine contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, we tend to picture messages: radio signals, mathematical codes, or perhaps a universal language waiting to be discovered. But what if alien beings don’t “speak” in any sense we understand? 🧪 🔭

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/do-alie...
Do Aliens Speak Physics? And Other Questions about Science and the Nature of Reality
www.seti.org
November 8, 2025 at 10:00 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Dr. Rachel Morgan is an Optical Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. She completed her undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering and Physics at MIT. She then continued at MIT for graduate school as a NASA Space Technology and Research Fellow and an Amelia Earhart Fellow. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 #NotJustAliens
Text: #notjustaliens. Rachel Morgan, Integrated Photonics. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of person. Text: Dr. Rachel Morgan is an Optical Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. She completed her undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering and Physics at MIT. She then continued at MIT for graduate school as a NASA Space Technology and Research Fellow and Amelia Earhart Fellow. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it. Text: Dr. Morgan currently studies the application of programmable integrated photonics technology to coronographic instruments for the characterization of exo-Earths with the Habitable Worlds Observatory. 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.
November 8, 2025 at 4:00 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Climate change may be outpacing our ability to deal with it using engineering. The third episode of @bipisci.bsky.social, tied to the 20th anniversary of the devastating hurricane, “Katrina and the River,” looks at efforts to tame the mighty Mississippi.

Listen here: bit.ly/4lzfJmh

#podcast 🧪
An aeriel view of a small portion of the Mississippi River, seen at twilight.
November 8, 2025 at 12:01 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
In a significant advance for astronomy, researchers from the Breakthrough Listen initiative, working in collaboration with NVIDIA and utilizing their system on the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array, have enhanced the process for detecting Fast Radio Bursts. 🧪 🔭

Learn more:
Revolutionary AI System Achieves 600x Speed Breakthrough in the Search for Signals from Space
www.seti.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:01 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: A beautiful picture of Jupiter taken by JunoCam onboard NASA's Juno spacecraft and processed by a citizen scientist. Numerous swirling storms are visible among the cloud tops, appearing in shades of white, tan, and blue. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Giulio Macrì 🧪 🔭
A view of one half of Jupiter, lit from the left, revealing alternating bands of white and tan full of swirling storms. The polar end of the planet is seen in shades of blue with more clouds swirling.
November 7, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by SETI Institute
skymapper.bsky.social
Earlier this week, @setiinstitute.bsky.social’s Ariel Graykowski welcomed Brice Bolin & Laura-May Abron to the SkyMapper/ @unistellar.bsky.social office for a chat on interstellar comet 3I/Atlas and Potentially Hazardous Asteroids ☄️
November 6, 2025 at 8:40 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Throughout October, the SETI Institute was featured across leading science and media outlets, underscoring its continued leadership in research, innovation, and public engagement. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Read the full stories: www.seti.org/news/seti-in...
SETI Institute In the News 2025: October Roundup
www.seti.org
November 7, 2025 at 12:00 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
In a recent episode of SETI Live, SETI Institute Deputy Director Dr. Simon Steel spoke with astronomer Dr. Melissa McClure of Leiden University about a groundbreaking discovery: the earliest stages of planet formation caught in action. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/birth-o...
Birth of Planets: JWST Spots Hot Mineral Condensation in a Proto-Stellar System
www.seti.org
November 6, 2025 at 8:03 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Next #SETILive: TRAPPIST‑1 e Revealed
TODAY, 6 November, 10 am PST

Join @goastromo.bsky.social, Néstor Espinoza (STScI), and @ana-glidden.bsky.social for a deep dive into the latest JWST observations of TRAPPIST‑1 e, a tantalizing Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
SETI Live record button logo. Text: TRAPPIST-1 e Revealed with Moiya McTier, Néstor Espinoza, and Ana Glidden. Background: Artist's impression of TRAPPIST-1 e and its star. Inset: Photos of Néstor Espinoza and Ana Glidden.
November 6, 2025 at 4:03 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: The first anniversary image from NASA’s JWST displays star birth like it’s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
A view of a colorful nebula, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, captured by JWST. The image shows a colorful nebula with a detailed, impressionistic texture and jets of molecular hydrogen (red) bursting from young stars. The star S1, the most massive one in the image, is carving out a glowing golden cave in the gas and dust with its stellar winds.
November 6, 2025 at 1:02 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Dr. Ian Weaver earned his PhD in Astrophysics from Harvard University, where he studied the atmospheres of planets around other stars. He currently serves as the Education Lead for Unistellar, which provides community outreach support for the NASA Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) mission. 🧪
Text: #notjustaliens. Ian Weaver, Education and Public Outreach. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of Ian Weaver. Text: Dr. Ian Weaver earned his PhD in Astrophysics from Harvard University, where he studied the atmospheres of planets around other stars. He currently serves as the Education Lead for Unistellar, which provides community outreach support for the NASA Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) mission. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it. Text: Additionally, Ian helps support the NASA Community College Network (NCCN), which provides online resources and connections to subject matter experts for community college instructors. 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.
November 6, 2025 at 12:00 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
The SETI Institute has announced it will adopt NVIDIA’s new IGX Thor platform to enhance real-time signal processing at the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Northern California. 🧪

Learn more: thedebrief.org/seti-institu...
SETI Institute Integrates AI to Boost Real-Time Search for Extraterrestrial Signals
The SETI Institute has announced it will adopt NVIDIA’s new IGX Thor platform to enhance real-time signal processing in its search for intelligent life beyond Earth.
thedebrief.org
November 5, 2025 at 8:01 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: Dust devils are whirlwinds of dust that are blown across Mars’s surface. They are one way that dust gets lifted into the Red Planet’s thin atmosphere and transported from one place to another. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin 🧪 🔭
November 5, 2025 at 4:02 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Thursday night plans? We’re going to Europa. 🚀

Join us for a free screening of Europa Report and a conversation with SETI Institute astronomer James De Buizer!

🗓 Nov 6 | 6:30PM PT
📍 SETI Institute (Mountain View, CA) & Zoom
🎟️ Sign up: tinyurl.com/europa-report 🧪 🎥
Text: This Thursday! Movie Night. Europa Report with special guest James de Buizer. Thursday, November 6, 2025, 6:30 pm PT. Join us in person or virtually. SETI Institute logo. Movie camera line graphic with SETI question mark, projecting from on top of an icy world and showing a still image of tall ice cliffs in the movie.
November 5, 2025 at 12:01 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Only the third known object to enter our Solar System from another star system, #3IATLAS became the focus of a special SETI Live episode featuring @allplanets.bsky.social and SETI Institute cometary scientist Dr. Ariel Graykowski. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/comet-3...

#notaliens
Comet 3I/ATLAS Perihelion Update
www.seti.org
November 4, 2025 at 8:02 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: This unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Crater features a bright central core, where a supermassive black hole lies, surrounded by a disk of hot, young stars and spiral arms laced with streams of dust and more young stars. 🧪 🔭
An unbarred spiral galaxy seen almost edge-on, the sweeping arms closest to the foreground appear to be reaching down to the bottom of the image. Several bright foreground stars can be seen. The background is full of stars and distant galaxies.
November 4, 2025 at 4:02 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
The future of the Big Easy depends on controlling a river that wants to be wild. Can engineering keep pace with climate change? The last in the @bipisci.bsky.social series tied to the storm’s 20th anniversary: “Katrina and the River,” looks at the mighty Mississippi. 🧪

Listen: bit.ly/4lzfJmh
The image is an aerial view of a portion of the Mississippi River, taken at twilight.
November 4, 2025 at 12:00 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Next #SETILive: Welcome, Moiya!
TODAY, 3 November, 2:30 pm PST

@goastromo.bsky.social 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... 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
SETI Live record button logo. Text: Welcome Moiya! with Beth Johnson and Moiya McTier. Background: Graphic of a blue curtain covered in stars. Inset: Photos of Beth Johnson and Moiya McTier.
November 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: This global view of Jupiter's moon, Io, was obtained during the tenth orbit of Jupiter by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Io, which is slightly larger than Earth's moon, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. 🧪 🔭

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
View of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io as seen by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The moon is 3/4 lit from the left-hand side. The surface is mottled in yellow, green, gray, and orange due to the constantly erupting volcanoes.
November 3, 2025 at 4:01 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#ICYMI: Environmental historian Dagomar Degroot explains that we can solve a climate issue if we work together... we have done it before! Watch the full #SETILive interview: youtube.com/live/iw7Irsc... 🧪 #podcast #climatechange
November 1, 2025 at 9:01 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Dr. Matija Ćuk specializes in the orbital and rotational dynamics of the Solar System bodies and has worked on the origin and dynamics of binary asteroids, the Earth-Moon system, and Saturn's moons and rings. 🧪 🔭

#PlanetaryScience #SpaceScience #SETI #NotJustAliens
Text: #notjustaliens. Matija Ćuk, Solar System Dynamics. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of Matija Ćuk. Text: Dr. Matija Ćuk specializes in the orbital and rotational dynamics of the Solar System bodies and has worked on the origin and dynamics of binary asteroids, the Earth-Moon system, and Saturn's moons and rings. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it. Text: Dr. Ćuk’s current research involves determining where and when the moons of Mars - Phobos and Deimos - formed and whether Saturn's large moon Titan formed in a merger of two smaller moons. 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.
November 1, 2025 at 3:00 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Death and decay are essential to life’s continuance. We consider what is involved in the ultimate recycling program with forensic anthropologists at the Body Farm when we meet The Decomposers on @bipisci.bsky.social. 🧪 💀

Listen here: bigpicturescience.org/episodes/the...

#podcast #halloween
This image is a still-life painting by the Dutch artist Harmen van Steenwijck, titled Vanitas Still Life with Skull, Books and Fruit.
October 31, 2025 at 11:01 PM