SETI Live

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 announced discovery of a possible pulsar near our galaxy's core. Using data from the Breakthrough Listen Deep Pulsar Survey and observations with the NSF Green Bank Telescope, researchers are probing one of the most extreme and mysterious regions in the Milky Way. The Galactic Center is a chaotic environment dominated by the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. For decades, astronomers have predicted that many pulsars should orbit this region — yet very few have been detected. Why are they so hard to find? And what would discovering more of them mean for testing gravity, mapping the Galactic Center, and understanding extreme astrophysics? Press release: https://news.columbia.edu/news/researchers-announce-discovery-possible-pulsar-milky-ways-center Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae336c Datasets: https://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/research/group/breakthrough-listen/deep-pulsar-survey-results-galactic-center (Recorded live 12 February 2026.)

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 astonishing discoveries in modern biology: scientists have revived a microscopic worm that had been frozen in Siberian permafrost for roughly 46,000 years. These nematodes entered a state of cryptobiosis — a kind of biological "pause" — and came back to life when gently thawed in the lab. They didn't just wiggle; they fed, reproduced, and gave us a window into life's extreme resilience. Simon and Philipp dive into the role of cryptobiosis, how radiocarbon dating places these organisms back in the late Pleistocene when woolly mammoths roamed, and what it means for the limits of suspended animation. This is biology meeting deep time — and you're invited to stretch your imagination along with the science. (Recorded live 29 January 2026.)

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 galaxy mergers help trigger the growth of supermassive black holes. In this SETI Live, host Dr. Moiya McTier will explore two new Euclid studies that combine vast sky surveys, machine learning, and multi-wavelength observations to uncover when and why active galactic nuclei (AGN) ignite. The results show that galaxies in the midst of mergers are far more likely to host actively feeding black holes — and that the brightest AGN are almost always found in cosmic collisions. Dr. McTier will be joined by lead authors Dr. Berta Margalef-Bentabol, Dr. Lingyu Wang, and Dr. Antonio la Marca from the Space Research Organisation Netherlands (SRON). They will discuss how Euclid identifies merging galaxies at scale, how researchers measure the black hole's contribution to a galaxy's light, and what this tells us about the coevolution of galaxies and their central black holes. We'll also look ahead to what future Euclid data could reveal as the survey expands to billions of galaxies. (Recorded live 15 January 2026.)

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 and exciting new chapter in comet science. Recently, the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft made unique observations of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS at a time when Earth- and Mars-based telescopes couldn't see it. In this livestream, communications specialist Beth Johnson and Dr. Phillips will unpack what these observations mean for our understanding of interstellar visitors and how instruments designed for one mission can yield discoveries well beyond their original goals. We'll lay out: • How Europa-UVS captured data on 3I/ATLAS's tails and coma while other assets were blocked by the Sun, bridging a critical observational gap. • What signatures of oxygen, hydrogen, and dust the instrument detected, and why that matters. • Why observations from unexpected vantage points — like those aboard Europa Clipper — can deepen our picture of interstellar objects. • What this tells us about the composition, activity, and evolution of a comet that formed around another star. Interstellar comets like 3I/ATLAS are cosmic time capsules from beyond our solar system, carrying clues about alien planetary systems. Capturing data from a spacecraft not originally tasked with comet science is a testament to scientific adaptability and ingenuity — and it gives researchers a rare look inside the workings of an object that has journeyed across the galaxy to visit us. Press release: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/europa-clipper/2025/12/18/nasas-europa-clipper-observes-comet-3i-atlas/ (Recorded live 19 December 2025.)

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 telescopes and all-sky sensors designed to open the universe to everyone. SkyMapper brings together professional observatories, citizen astronomers, and classrooms into a single, decentralized platform. It enables real scientific discovery — from tracking satellites and meteors to monitoring comets and transient events in real time — while giving students and the public the chance to observe the sky, contribute data, and learn how modern astronomy works. We'll talk about the science, the outreach mission, the importance of the SETI Institute's partnership with SkyMapper, and why a worldwide, always-on view of the sky matters more than ever for research, education, and our shared curiosity. Join us live and discover how you can be part of this new way of exploring the universe. 📚 Learn more about SkyMapper: www.skymapper.io 👋 Join the SkyMapper community on Telegram: https://t.me/skymapper_community ✅ Follow SkyMapper on social media: BlueSky: @skymapper.bsky.social X (formerly Twitter): @Skymapperspace LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skymapper-inc/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyMapper/ (Recorded live 5 December 2025.)

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 unpacking their groundbreaking study showing that Enceladus — one of Saturn's icy moons — may harbor a stable subsurface ocean capable of supporting life. 📄 For more info: The study "Endogenic heat at Enceladus' north pole" has just been published in Science Advances: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx4338 Official press release from the University of Oxford: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-11-10-saturn-s-icy-moon-may-host-stable-ocean-fit-life-new-study-finds (Recorded live 20 November 2025.)

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 Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of a nearby star. In this episode, we explore: 🛰 How JWST is peering into TRAPPIST-1 e's atmosphere (or lack thereof). 🔵 Why the planet almost certainly doesn't have a thick hydrogen envelope, ruling out a mini-Neptune-like world. 🪨 The emerging hints of a secondary, heavier atmosphere — or the possibility that it's a bare rock. ⭐️ The challenges posed by stellar activity and their implications for habitability. Get ready for a conversation about exoplanet atmospheres, habitability, and the next steps in characterizing worlds beyond our Solar System. Press release: http://webbtelescope.org/news-2025-109 Papers: Espinoza et al., https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf42e Glidden et al., https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf62e (Recorded live 6 November 2025.)