Watery Exoplanets

Throughout human history, comets have fascinated us. They have gone from signs and portents of bad things to come to well-studied and even visited "dirty snowballs". Every year, observers search the skies, hoping to discover the Next Big Comet - Halley, Hyakutake, Hale–Bopp, McNaught. From SOHO and LINEAR to ATLAS and IRAS, numerous observatories have continued to add to the count of discovered comets. But it doesn't require expensive hardware or spacecraft to make similar observations from your own backyard; telescopes and even binoculars will work - at least for the brightest objects. For members of Unistellar's Citizen Science Network, however, comets can be seen at faint magnitudes under a range of night sky conditions.

Join Beth Johnson as she welcomes SETI Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Ariel Graykowski to this week's SETI Live to discuss the results of citizen scientist observations of comets 12P/Pons-Brooks and C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS).

Unistellar's comet activity program: https://www.unistellar.com/citizen-science/comets/

Phil Plait, aka the Bad Astronomer, has been communicating and correcting space science since the turn of the century (sorry, Phil!). His first book, "Bad Astronomy", tackled numerous misconceptions and myths about astronomy and space missions. His second book, "Death from the Skies!", took a look at a variety of ways the world will end. Now, in his latest book, "Under Alien Skies", Phil becomes a tour guide to the cosmos, taking us all on a trip through the universe to marvel at the wonders of other worlds, distant star systems, and mind-blowing phenomena.

Communications specialist Beth Johnson chats with Dr. Plait about his latest book and just what wonders await us in our solar system and out amongst the stars.

With a first flight on April 19, 2021, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter broke ground on new capabilities for remote planetary missions. For nearly three years, the little drone far exceeded the originally planned technology demonstration of up to five flights, taking off and landing 72 times! Sadly, damage to the rotor blades has now left Ginny grounded, but the spacecraft has paved the way for future aerial explorers at Mars and, potentially, other space destinations.

Join senior astronomer and Director of Unistellar Citizen Science Franck Marchis in this exciting SETI Live with Ingenuity Team Lead Teddy Tzanetos, as they look back at the stunning accomplishments of this small but mighty craft and discuss what’s next for the future of drones and planetary science. (Recorded 15 February 2024.)

Join us for an exciting SETI Live where we’ll explore the wonders beyond Earth. We’re excited to have Valery Lainey, a renowned researcher from the Paris Observatory in France, as our guest. Franck Marchis, our Senior Astronomer, will be guiding the conversation, sharing insights from the universe. It’s set to be an engaging event, and we hope you’ll be part of it!

In a groundbreaking study published in Nature Journal, Valery Lainey and his team have unveiled a remarkable discovery about Saturn’s moon Mimas. Once thought to be a cold, solid body of ice and rock, Mimas now appears to harbor a vast global ocean beneath its icy crust. This revelation comes after a meticulous analysis of Mimas’s orbit, as observed by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which showed unexpected wobbles that suggest the presence of an under-ice ocean.

For years, the scientific community was skeptical about the possibility of an ocean within Mimas, mainly because the expected surface deformations were absent. However, Lainey’s research, based on recent simulations and precise orbital measurements, suggests that an ocean could exist without leaving visible marks on the moon’s surface. This finding not only reshapes our understanding of Mimas but also opens new avenues in the search for habitable environments beyond Earth. (Recorded 8 February 2024.)

Press release: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2416084-saturns-moon-mimas-may-be-hiding-a-vast-global-ocean-under-its-ice/ 

In a groundbreaking cosmic quest, the SETI Institute’s Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster (COSMIC) at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This cutting-edge technology is not a distinct telescope; it’s a detector. COSMIC searches for extraterrestrial signals and paves the way for future science using a copy of the raw data from the telescope’s observations. At the heart of COSMIC’s mission is pursuing the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe? Project scientist Dr. Chenoa Tremblay and the team detailed the project in a paper published in The Astronomical Journal.

At the American Astronomical Society's winter 2024 conference in New Orleans, Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center, interviewed Dr. Tremblay about the project and its mission.

NASA’s Juno mission has observed mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Data for this discovery was collected by the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer aboard the spacecraft during a close flyby of the icy moon. The findings, which could help scientists better understand the origin of Ganymede and the composition of its deep ocean, were published on Oct. 30 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Federico Tosi, a Juno co-investigator from Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome and lead author of the paper, speaks with senior astronomer Franck Marchis about this discovery and what it could mean for Ganymede's subsurface oceans and possibly life. (Recorded 25 January 2024.)

Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02107-5

Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea. Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind.

With deep expertise and a winning sense of humor, the Weinersmiths investigate perhaps the biggest questions humanity will ever ask itself—whether and how to become multiplanetary. Join them in a special conversation with SETI Institute's Beth Johnson.

Join us for an exclusive SETI Live event, as we take a first look at the next-generation telescope from Unistellar - the ODYSSEY.

First introduced in 2017 with their eVscope, Unistellar has been a prominent collaborator with the SETI Institute since 2019. eVscopes have been used by schools, colleges, and the public to observe exoplanets, supernovae, and asteroids in a truly global network that continues to grow.

Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center, and Franck Marchis, Co-founder of Unistellar and citizen science director at the SETI Institute, will talk about the technology of the new telescope, insights on how such a telescope is beta tested, and how the ODYSSEY will dramatically impact citizen and amateur astronomer’s contribution to cutting edge scientific research. We’ll take a tour of this beautiful instrument, inside and out, and look at some early results and images. (Recorded 10 January 2024.)

The new year has begun, and it's time for your favorite hosts - Franck Marchis and Beth Johnson - to run down some of the space science to look forward to in 2024. We will talk about launches, missions, celestial events (including a certain solar eclipse), and even SETI Institute's 40th anniversary. So come watch live and bring your questions!

For our last SETI Live of 2023, senior astronomer Seth Shostak and communications specialist Beth Johnson have fun chatting about the "science" behind Santa's overnight journey. How can he deliver presents so quickly? How do the reindeer fly? And just how did NORAD's Santa Tracker come about? Join the holiday shenanigans and watch live! (Recorded 21 December 2023.)