The SETI Institute
@SETIInstitute

Our mission is to lead humanity's quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life & intelligence in the universe and share that knowledge. #notjustaliens

 Mountain View, CA
direct.me/setiinstitute
Joined April 2009
12,536 Photos and videos
🌎 One pixel. That's all a future telescope will see of a distant living world. To read it and to know whether it's alive, we need a reference. So MARBLE will study the one planet we already know is inhabited: ours. From lunar orbit, the spacecraft will watch Earth's entire visible face, then work out what it all collapses into when seen from light-years away. It will measure how light is organized when it reflects off our world, as life twists it in a way nothing else is known to. We're building the answer key, so that when we finally see that pixel around another star, we'll know what we're looking at. Give $100 or more, and we'll laser-etch your name onto a film carried aboard the spacecraft. All gifts are matched up to $50,000 through September 30. 🔗 #LaunchTheSearch at seti.org/projects/marble/ #SETIInstitute #SearchForLife #SETI #SpaceExploration
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⭐ Did this star eat its planets? Astronomers have found a new way to look for evidence of planetary engulfment — when a star consumes the worlds that once orbited it. A new study uses beryllium as a chemical fingerprint of these cosmic catastrophes, potentially preserving evidence long after other telltale elements have disappeared. Lead author and doctoral student Anne Rathsam joins @GoAstroMo on the next SETI Live to explain how astronomers can reconstruct the violent histories of planetary systems by studying the stars they leave behind. 📅 Thursday, October 1 🕚 11:00 am PDT 📺 Watch live on SETI Institute channels. #SETILive #Astronomy #Exoplanets
SETI Live record button logo. Text: This Star Ate Its Planets with Moiya McTier and Anne Rathsam, Thursday, 1 October 2026, 11:00 am PDT / 2:00 pm EDT. Background: Artist's impression of a planet impacting a star. Inset: Photos of Moiya McTuer and Anne Rathsam.

ALT SETI Live record button logo. Text: This Star Ate Its Planets with Moiya McTier and Anne Rathsam, Thursday, 1 October 2026, 11:00 am PDT / 2:00 pm EDT. Background: Artist's impression of a planet impacting a star. Inset: Photos of Moiya McTuer and Anne Rathsam.
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📰 What made headlines for the SETI Institute in August? From surprising discoveries about Pluto to new ways of studying distant worlds, SETI Institute scientists and their research appeared in stories across the media last month. Catch up on some of the science, discoveries, and conversations that made the news in our August roundup. 🔗 seti.org/news/in-the-news-au… #SETI #SpaceScience #Astronomy #Astrobiology
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#PPOD: Small Worlds in a Stellar Nursery ✨️ @NASAWebb peers into IC 348, a young star-forming region about 1,000 light-years from Earth, in one of the telescope’s largest images yet released. Amid the swirling clouds of gas and dust are young stars, newborn protostars, and a population of extraordinarily small brown dwarfs—objects that form like stars but never become massive enough to sustain hydrogen fusion in their cores. Using JWST’s NIRCam, astronomers identified brown dwarfs with only about twice Jupiter's mass, making them the least massive brown dwarfs known and challenging models of how such objects form. In the upper right, powerful jets from protostars slam into surrounding material, producing glowing Herbig-Haro objects and offering another glimpse of stellar birth in action. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) #astronomy
A star-forming region. It is blanketed in thick clouds of gas and dust, millions of kilometres across, that form swirling patterns. Bright stars are scattered throughout the clouds, with the densest cluster situated in the centre of the scene. Each is crowned with six long points created by the optics of the telescope’s mirrors. In the upper right, a couple of hidden stars blast out long, glowing jets of material.

ALT A star-forming region. It is blanketed in thick clouds of gas and dust, millions of kilometres across, that form swirling patterns. Bright stars are scattered throughout the clouds, with the densest cluster situated in the centre of the scene. Each is crowned with six long points created by the optics of the telescope’s mirrors. In the upper right, a couple of hidden stars blast out long, glowing jets of material.

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🔭 What happens if we actually find evidence that we’re not alone? That question is at the heart of When We Find Them, a new podcast from Central Florida Public Media that explores the search for life beyond Earth—and what might happen after a discovery. The first episode traces the history of SETI from Frank Drake and Project Ozma to the Drake Equation and today’s search, featuring SETI Institute CEO Bill Diamond, science journalist Nadia Drake, and archival reflections from Frank Drake himself. Listen and read more: cfpublic.org/2026-09-23/sear… #SETI #Astrobiology #SpaceScience #Astronomy

Searching for life in the universe

The work of radio astronomer Frank Drake kicked off the modern search for life in the universe.

cfpublic.org
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A Rocky World With an Atmosphere | #SETILive nitter.net/i/broadcasts/1qKVmyLze…

The SETI Institute

A Rocky World With an Atmosphere | #SETILive
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🌎 A rocky world in the habitable zone has an atmosphere. For the first time, astronomers have detected an atmosphere around a rocky planet orbiting in another star’s habitable zone. What does this discovery tell us about LHS 1140 b — and the search for potentially habitable worlds beyond our solar system? 🔴 TODAY at 2:30 pm PDT, @AllPlanets talks with lead author Dr. Collin Cherubim on SETI Live. Watch live and bring your questions! 🔗 piped.video/live/ZnSd-ia7OQw #SETILive #Exoplanets #Astrobiology #Astronomy #SETIInstitute
SETI Live record button logo. Text: A World With Air with Franck Marchis and Collin Cherubim, Thursday, 24 September 2026, 2:30 pm PDT / 5:30 pm EDT. Background: Artist's impression of a rocky world with a faint haze around it. In the distance is a red dwarf star and another planet making a transit across the star. Inset photos: Franck Marchis and Collin Cherubim.

ALT SETI Live record button logo. Text: A World With Air with Franck Marchis and Collin Cherubim, Thursday, 24 September 2026, 2:30 pm PDT / 5:30 pm EDT. Background: Artist's impression of a rocky world with a faint haze around it. In the distance is a red dwarf star and another planet making a transit across the star. Inset photos: Franck Marchis and Collin Cherubim.

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#PPOD: Roman Opens Its Eyes 👀 @NASARoman has opened its eyes to the universe. This test image captures the first photons of starlight to reach Roman’s Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera designed to survey enormous areas of the sky while preserving the sharp detail of a space telescope. The stars look like fuzzy rings because Roman isn’t focused yet. The detector array was still stowed in its launch position when the image was taken, giving engineers a baseline for aligning the telescope’s optics and tuning its focus. Initial tests confirm that the Wide Field Instrument is operating as expected, while Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument has also begun its checkout. The mission remains on track to release its first science images in early 2027. Credit: @NASAGoddard, Tyler Desjardins (@STScI) #astronomy
This test image captures the very first photons of starlight to reach the Wide Field Instrument on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Roman’s primary science instrument has opened its eyes to the universe for the first time, revealing a sea of out-of-focus stars, each spread out over many thousands of pixels. The image, which zooms into one detector and zooms again to a single star in the insets, offers a baseline the Roman team will work from to align the telescope’s optics and tune the focus.

ALT This test image captures the very first photons of starlight to reach the Wide Field Instrument on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Roman’s primary science instrument has opened its eyes to the universe for the first time, revealing a sea of out-of-focus stars, each spread out over many thousands of pixels. The image, which zooms into one detector and zooms again to a single star in the insets, offers a baseline the Roman team will work from to align the telescope’s optics and tune the focus.

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🦠 Could microbes someday help us build habitats on Mars? Pioneer Labs has engineered sPL.001, a bacterium designed to use resources derived from Martian dirt, water, and atmosphere to produce bioplastics inside a protected bioreactor. The researchers also designed the organism with planetary protection in mind: outside its controlled environment, it cannot sustain growth under Martian surface conditions. The project explores how biology could help future explorers use local resources rather than bringing every building material from Earth. Learn more: blog.pioneer-labs.org/p/anno… #Mars #Astrobiology #SpaceExploration #PlanetaryScience

Announcing the First Microbe for Mars

A useful, safe, first step toward terraforming

blog.pioneer-labs.org
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🌎 MARBLE is the SETI Institute's most ambitious mission yet: our first space observatory. It will study Earth from lunar orbit the way we'd study an inhabited world around another star, building the reference that future searches for life will use. Swipe through to see every giving level. At $100 and above, you join the First Light Circle, and your name is laser-etched onto a film carried aboard the spacecraft. #SETIInstitute #MARBLE #SearchForLife #SETI #SpaceExploration #Astrobiology
Fundraising graphic from the SETI Institute inviting donors to have their names sent into lunar orbit aboard the Marble mission, with a "Swipe to see more" call-to-action and note that gifts are matched up to $50,000 through Sept. 30.

ALT Fundraising graphic from the SETI Institute inviting donors to have their names sent into lunar orbit aboard the Marble mission, with a "Swipe to see more" call-to-action and note that gifts are matched up to $50,000 through Sept. 30.

SETI Institute donation graphic titled The Signal Circle $1–$99 listing benefits: supporters-only MARBLE mission updates, a printable Launch the Search supporter certificate, and a MARBLE commemorative sticker, shown over a moon-like surface.

ALT SETI Institute donation graphic titled The Signal Circle $1–$99 listing benefits: supporters-only MARBLE mission updates, a printable Launch the Search supporter certificate, and a MARBLE commemorative sticker, shown over a moon-like surface.

SETI Institute donation tier "The First Light Circle" ($100–$249) over a lunar surface, listing benefits: Signal Circle perks, donor name laser-etched on polyimide film flown on MARBLE to lunar orbit, and a limited-edition MARBLE mission patch; gifts matched up to $50,000.

ALT SETI Institute donation tier "The First Light Circle" ($100–$249) over a lunar surface, listing benefits: Signal Circle perks, donor name laser-etched on polyimide film flown on MARBLE to lunar orbit, and a limited-edition MARBLE mission patch; gifts matched up to $50,000.

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All gifts are matched up to $50,000 through September 30. Let's #LaunchTheSearch. 🚀 🔗 seti.org/projects/marble/#la…
Sagan Circle donor level ($250–$499) for the SETI Institute, listing benefits: everything in the First Light Circle, an invitation to a live Q&A with the MARBLE science team, a donor-only brick orrery build guide (MARBLE, Earth, Moon); gifts matched up to $50,000 through Sept 30

ALT Sagan Circle donor level ($250–$499) for the SETI Institute, listing benefits: everything in the First Light Circle, an invitation to a live Q&A with the MARBLE science team, a donor-only brick orrery build guide (MARBLE, Earth, Moon); gifts matched up to $50,000 through Sept 30

SETI Institute donor tier graphic titled "The Drake Circle $500–$999" listing benefits: everything in the Sagan Circle, named recognition on the MARBLE mission page, and a printed "First Light" certificate signed by the MARBLE principal investigator and mailed to the donor; gifts matched up to $50,000 through September 30.

ALT SETI Institute donor tier graphic titled "The Drake Circle $500–$999" listing benefits: everything in the Sagan Circle, named recognition on the MARBLE mission page, and a printed "First Light" certificate signed by the MARBLE principal investigator and mailed to the donor; gifts matched up to $50,000 through September 30.

Promotional graphic for SETI Institute's "The Tarter Circle $1,000+" donor level listing benefits: includes everything in the Drake Circle, one extra name on the mission flight film, permanent commemoration on a Mission Supporters plaque, and a "Launch the Search" call-to-action.

ALT Promotional graphic for SETI Institute's "The Tarter Circle $1,000+" donor level listing benefits: includes everything in the Drake Circle, one extra name on the mission flight film, permanent commemoration on a Mission Supporters plaque, and a "Launch the Search" call-to-action.
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#PPOD: The Telescope That Discovered Neptune 🔭 On September 23, 1846, astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle pointed this Fraunhofer refracting telescope toward a predicted location in the night sky and identified #Neptune, the eighth planet in our solar system. The discovery came after astronomers Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams independently used irregularities in Uranus’s orbit to calculate where an unseen planet should be. Galle found Neptune less than one degree from Le Verrier’s predicted position, making its discovery a remarkable demonstration of Newtonian gravity and celestial mechanics. The nine-inch Fraunhofer refractor, built around 1826–1827 and considered one of the finest telescopes of its era, is now part of the Deutsches Museum collection in Munich. Credit: @DeutschesMuseum #planetaryscience
Long classical refracting telescope mounted on a tall wooden tripod displayed behind a low railing in a softly lit museum gallery, with a lit display case and framed historical illustration on the wall.

ALT Long classical refracting telescope mounted on a tall wooden tripod displayed behind a low railing in a softly lit museum gallery, with a lit display case and framed historical illustration on the wall.

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📡 Astronomers have detected radio signals coming directly from an exoplanet for the first time. No, it’s #notaliens. Using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, researchers detected repeating radio bursts from Beta Pictoris b, a young giant planet about 63 light-years away. The signals appear to come from auroras generated by the planet’s powerful magnetic field. The discovery could give astronomers a new way to study the magnetic fields of worlds beyond our solar system. The research is currently undergoing peer review. Read more from @ScienceAlert: sciencealert.com/astronomers… #Exoplanets #Astronomy #RadioAstronomy #SpaceScience

Astronomers Detect Radio Signals Coming Directly From an Exoplanet For The First Time

It's not aliens, though...

sciencealert.com
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SETI AIR Newsletter - September 2026 🎨 This month, we turn our gaze outward to look back at Earth. SETI AIR Affiliate Artist @richellellisart and @LADdesign’s forthcoming book "Inploration: Art Exploring Space to Understand Earth" brings together more than 50 voices across art, science, ecology, and space exploration to consider how a cosmic perspective might deepen our understanding of our home planet. Elsewhere, #SETIAIR artists continue to shift perspectives across scales and disciplines, with exhibitions, talks, awards, and new projects spanning data, artificial intelligence, planetary systems, and more. Wishing you clear skies, Bettina Learn more: seti.org/news/seti-air-newsl…

SETI AIR Newsletter - September 2026

seti.org
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The SETI Institute retweeted
Skymapper
@Skymapperspace
Sep 22
SkyMapper CEO and @SETIInstitute Director of Citizen Science @AllPlanets took the stage at Avalanche Summit NYC 🔺 to talk about a growing challenge in the age of AI: how do we verify what we observe? See how SkyMapper is using @avax to build trusted, verifiable records of what’s happening from sky to space. 🌌 piped.video/watch?v=rwr0liki…

How Do We Know What We See in the Sky Is Real? | SkyMapper

How do we know what we see in the sky is real?Speaking at Avalanc...

youtube.com
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#PPOD: Purple Swirls on the Red Planet 🔴 #Mars looks unusually colorful in this view of Thyles Rupes, an icy cliff near the planet’s south pole captured by ESA’s Mars Express. Dark volcanic material rich in minerals such as olivine and pyroxene winds through paler terrain coated with carbon dioxide frost, while part of Mars’s south polar ice cap appears at the lower left. The scene’s striking purple, pink, and red tones come from rosy morning sunlight, dust suspended in the Martian atmosphere, frost covering the ground, and patches where ice and dust have mixed. The cliffs themselves rise more than 1 kilometer in places and preserve evidence of ancient tectonic forces that deformed the Martian crust billions of years ago. Credit: @ESA @DLR_en @FU_Berlin #planetaryscience
False-color satellite view of Mars' cratered polar plain, showing multiple round impact craters, bright frost or ice deposits, layered dunes and eroded reddish terrain.

ALT False-color satellite view of Mars' cratered polar plain, showing multiple round impact craters, bright frost or ice deposits, layered dunes and eroded reddish terrain.
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🔭 What if the search for alien life didn’t depend on knowing exactly what alien life looks like? Research involving SETI Institute affiliate Stuart Bartlett explores whether the complexity of light reflected from a planet could help distinguish living worlds from lifeless ones. Using reflected-light data from Earth and Mars, the researchers tested 27 different measures of complexity. Earth scored higher on 25 of them — suggesting complexity could offer another way to search for life beyond our planet. @sciworthy takes a closer look at the research: sciworthy.com/finding-alien-… #SETI #Astrobiology #Biosignatures #SpaceScience

Finding alien life with light signals – Sciworthy

Scientists found that planets with life produce more complex, information-dense signals than nonliving worlds.

sciworthy.com
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🌌 Can planets form around supermassive black holes? New simulations suggest that the dusty disks surrounding actively feeding supermassive black holes could behave a little like the planet-forming disks around young stars. Dust can clump and grow into enormous planet-mass objects — and some may eventually become massive enough to ignite fusion and become stars. Dive into the strange possibility of planets forming in one of the universe’s most extreme environments: seti.org/news/can-planets-fo… #Astronomy #Exoplanets #BlackHoles #SpaceScience

Can Planets Form Around Supermassive Black Holes?

seti.org
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The SETI Institute retweeted
Space Robotics Workshop@spacerobots_org
Sep 21
Thank you to the @SETIInstitute for backing the Space Robotics Workshop at #IROS2026 as a Platinum Sponsor. This support makes the workshop possible 🙏 Join us on Sept 27 space-robots.org/events/iros… #SRWatIROS2026
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#PPOD: Watching Hurricanes From Above 🌀 Hurricane Melissa swirls south of Jamaica in this view captured from the International Space Station in October 2025. As Earth experiences a strong El Niño, satellites are helping scientists understand how unusually warm ocean waters influence hurricanes and other weather patterns worldwide. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich and Sentinel-6B measure sea-surface height, wave size, and wind speed from orbit. Because warmer water expands, changes in ocean height can reveal where heat is stored beneath the surface—energy that can help hurricanes rapidly intensify. These measurements are helping scientists improve forecasts while extending a continuous record of global sea levels that began more than three decades ago. Credit: @NASA #planetaryscience
Massive hurricane with a sharply defined eye and spiral cloud bands over the ocean, seen from low Earth orbit with International Space Station solar panels framing the storm.

ALT Massive hurricane with a sharply defined eye and spiral cloud bands over the ocean, seen from low Earth orbit with International Space Station solar panels framing the storm.

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🐋👽 What if an alien signal is there — but we don't recognize it as a signal? Studying humpback whale communication here on Earth can reveal something important about the search for intelligence beyond it: our assumptions shape what we notice. In this #SETILive clip, our guests explore how unfamiliar forms of communication can challenge the way we think about detecting intelligence across the cosmos. Watch the full conversation: piped.video/live/D9RQAgmtdeQ #SETI #HumpbackWhales #Astrobiology #WhaleCommunication
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