SETI Live

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 technosignatures, including laser signals, infrared waste heat, and other possible evidence of advanced civilizations.
In this conversation, we explore:
Why SETI now deserves a full academic textbook
The many ways scientists search for alien technology
The history and philosophy behind the field
What would actually count as a real detection
How researchers are training the next generation of SETI scientists
Learn more about The Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center: https://www.pseti.psu.edu/ 
Access the textbook: https://iopscience.iop.org/book/mono/978-0-7503-4796-9
(Recorded live 19 March 2026.)

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 once-stable Saturnian moon system may have become unstable, sending an outer moon on a collision course with Titan. The merger would have resurfaced Titan—erasing many ancient craters—and scattered debris that later formed Hyperion. The resulting changes to Titan's orbit could have destabilized smaller inner moons, triggering collisions that eventually created Saturn's rings.
Join SETI Institute Social Media Manager Beth Johnson and planetary dynamicist Matija Ćuk as they explore this new model for the Saturn system's evolution, what clues led scientists to propose a moon-moon merger, and how future missions—like NASA's Dragonfly mission to Titan—might test this dramatic hypothesis.
Could Titan really be the survivor of an ancient cosmic crash?
📄 Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae422c 
📰 Press release: https://www.seti.org/news/saturns-moon-titan-could-have-formed-in-a-merger-of-two-old-moons/ 
(Recorded live 12 March 2026.)

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 been missing?
Radio waves from distant stars and planets are incredibly faint and often buried in noise. This new approach rethinks how we process and interpret complex data, potentially improving sensitivity to subtle, structured signals.
RIMS press release: https://observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/the-detection-of-radio-bursts.html
RIMS paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02757-7
Stellar storm press release: https://observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/evidence-of-a-massive-stellar.html
CME video: https://youtu.be/bHlOYFn0RUM
(Recorded live 5 March 2026.)

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 our program and discuss recent highlights. (Recorded live 27 February 2026.)

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 understanding of planetary formation. For years, astronomers have known that planets of sizes between Earth and Neptune are incredibly common—but their origins and evolutionary paths have remained puzzling. This new result may finally clarify how these worlds form, evolve, and sometimes transform.
What does this mean for:
• How do planetary systems assemble?
• Why does our Solar System look so unusual?
• The search for habitable worlds beyond Earth?
Join us as we break down the science, the methods, and the bigger implications for exoplanet research and the search for life.
Press release: https://www.abc-nins.jp/en/2026/01/08/10010/
Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09840-z
(Recorded live 26 February 2026.)