setiinstitute

setiinstitute, 1 hour ago to Podcast

Something interesting is rumbling in the physics community. Are we on the brink of discovering a new force of nature? At least one particle physicist thinks so. We venture “Beyond the Standard Model” on Big Picture Science.

Listen here: https://bigpicturescience.org/beyond-the-standard-model

#podcast #science #physics #standardmodel #scicomm

setiinstitute, 4 hours ago to science

#PPOD: ESA's ExoMars orbiter caught a close-up view of a huge crater on Mars. This remnant of an ancient impact is just one of the many scars asteroids have inflicted upon the Red Planet. Water, volcanoes, and impacts from asteroids shaped the Martian surface in the ancient past, but the preservation of this impact is remarkable. The crater is located in Utopia Planitia and is about 8 km in diameter. Credit: ESA/TGO/CaSSIS

#mars #science #scicomm

setiinstitute, 2 days ago to science

#ICYMI: Dr. Andrew Siemion received the Drake Award Thursday night. Ahead of the awards reception, communications specialist Beth Johnson sat down at the SETI Institute offices and talked with him about his career so far, receiving the Drake Award, and his vision for the future of SETI research.

Watch: https://youtube.com/live/CMeplX46JmY

#seti #science #scicomm

setiinstitute, 2 days ago to science

https://www.seti.org/keeping-eye-comet-a3-next-naked-eye-comet-candidate
In early 2023, a new comet took stargazers by surprise. Called Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinan-Atlas), this icy visitor was discovered by two separate observatories in South Africa and China. Comet A3 had scientists and amateurs alike wondering if it would be the next naked-eye comet to light our skies. As 2024 unfolds, we eagerly anticipate whether Comet A3 will deliver the breathtaking celestial display we have all been hoping for!

#comet #science #scicomm #citizenscience

setiinstitute, 3 days ago to science

https://royalsociety.org/news/2024/05/new-fellows-2024/

The SETI Institute is proud to learn that Science Advisory Board member Mike Garrett was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society yesterday. Prof. Garrett is the Sir Bernard Lovell Chair of Astrophysics and the Director of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA), Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester.

#royalsociety #science #scicomm

setiinstitute, 3 days ago to photography

#PPOD: This photo was taken by NASA's Bill Dunford near Malad City, Idaho, on May 11, 2024; the International Space Station appears as a white streak in this 8-second exposure. Credit: NASA/Bill Dunford

#aurora #photography #scicomm

setiinstitute, 3 days ago to space

https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/why-cant-we-see-the-far-side-of-the-moon

Why don't we ever see the far side of the moon? From Earth, it appears as if the moon doesn't rotate at all, but it does spin on its axis, just like Earth does. However, the moon is tidally locked to our planet. That means it takes just as long for the moon to rotate about its axis as it does to orbit Earth — roughly one month.

#space #science #moon #scicomm

setiinstitute, 4 days ago to random

Next #SETILive: TODAY, Thursday, May 16, 2:30PM PDT

The SETI Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Andrew Siemion will be honored with the prestigious 2024 Drake Award for his exceptional and pioneering contributions to SETI and radio astronomy and his leadership in the field. Ahead of tonight's awards reception, Beth Johnson talks with Dr. Siemion about his career so far, receiving the Drake Award, and his vision for the future of #SETI research.

WATCH LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMeplX46JmY

setiinstitute, 4 days ago to space

#PPOD: M51 (NGC 5194) lies about 27 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici and is trapped in a tumultuous relationship with its near neighbor, the dwarf galaxy NGC 5195. The interaction between these two galaxies has made these galactic neighbors one of the better-studied galaxy pairs in the night sky. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team

#space #science #scicomm #jwst

setiinstitute, 4 days ago to Podcast

Could play have evolutionary benefits? From sledding crows to roughhousing wolves to bees rolling balls, we examine how play shapes the animal kingdom. Plus why children need risky play. It’s “The Play’s the Thing” this week on Big Picture Science.

Listen: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/the-plays-the-thing

#podcast #science #evolution #scicomm

setiinstitute, 5 days ago to science

#PPOD: As carbon dioxide frost sublimates with the warming Martian spring, a pattern emerges of dark brown sand dunes interspersed with the remaining bright frost. Image taken by the HiRISE camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona

#mars #science #space #scicomm

setiinstitute, 5 days ago to random

JOIN US VIRTUALLY for this year's Drake Awards, MAY 16 AT 6:30 PM PST.

Mingle online with special guest, Paul Horowitz, 2021 Drake Award recipient, who
is eager to find out why this year's Drake Award recipient, Andrew Siemion,
thinks first contact is imminent...!

Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer of the SETI Institute and host of the virtual
event, guarantees an electrifying night ablaze with cosmic thrills and
provocative conversation.

Get your ticket today: events.idonate.com/drakeawards

setiinstitute, 6 days ago to SciComm

https://scitechdaily.com/new-space-snowman-discovery-shakes-up-solar-system-theories/
A recent study exploring the development of comets suggests that objects in deep space, such as the Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth, might act as time capsules, preserving ancient ices from billions of years in the past. A new study is shaking up what scientists thought they knew about distant objects in the far reaches of the solar system, starting with an object called the space snowman.

#scicomm #space #science

setiinstitute, 6 days ago to space

#PPOD: This Hubble Space Telescope image shows boulders ejected from the asteroid Dimorphos after the DART spacecraft slammed into it in September 2022. The bright object with a tail is Dimorphos, and the tiny white dots clustered around it are boulders ranging in size from 1 to 6.7 meters (3 to 22 feet) in diameter. Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA)

#dartmission #space #science #asteroid #scicomm

setiinstitute, 6 days ago to science

https://nautil.us/how-whales-could-help-us-speak-to-aliens-559443/
On Aug. 19, 2021, a humpback whale named Twain whupped back. Specifically, Twain made a series of humpback whale calls known as “whups” in response to playback recordings of whups from a boat of researchers off the coast of Alaska. The whale and the playback exchanged calls 36 times. In their 2023 published results, McGowan, Sharpe, and their coauthors are careful not to characterize their exchange with Twain as a conversation.

#seti #whaleseti #science #scicomm

setiinstitute, 7 days ago to science

Why researchers are recommending that parents let kids play unsupervised in playgrounds that might resemble junkyards. Also, evolutionary benefits of play in other species from crows to wolves to bees. “The Play’s the Thing” on Big Picture Science.

Listen here: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/the-plays-the-thing

#science #podcast #scicomm

setiinstitute, 7 days ago to Funny

#PPOD: NASA's Voyager 1 probe launched in 1977 and is now the most distant human-made object from Earth, traveling through interstellar space. Recently, NASA engineers had to figure out why the probe was suddenly sending unreadable data. After nearly six months of analysis and re-programming, they got Voyager correctly transmitting again. Truly a feat of human ingenuity. Credit: Dave Granlund

#comic #cartoon #funny #science #space #scicomm

setiinstitute, 9 days ago to space

#ICYMI: The Nova of a Lifetime

This week on #SETILive, communications specialist Beth Johnson chatted with Dr. Tom Esposito, SETI researcher and Lead of the Unistellar Cosmic Cataclysms program, about the impending nova of T Coronae Borealis and the scientific efforts to catch it!

WATCH: https://youtube.com/live/L4OQP5M0GBI

#nova #space #science #scicomm

setiinstitute, 10 days ago to SciComm

https://www.space.com/can-alien-life-exist-planet-rings
One locale that few scientists have considered for life is the set of rings that crown Jupiter, outside the gas giant's atmosphere. These rings, like those that circle all of our solar system's gas giants, are actually belts composed mainly of water-ice particles, some as small as grains of sand, others as large as mountains. Might life exist there?

#seti #arewealone #lifebeyondearth #scicomm

setiinstitute, 10 days ago to photography

#PPOD: In dark evening skies over June Lake, northern hemisphere, planet Earth, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks stood just above the western horizon on March 30. Its twisted turbulent ion tail and diffuse greenish coma are captured in this two-degree wide telescopic field of view along with the bright yellowish star Hamal also known as Alpha Arietis. Credit: Dan Bartlett via APOD

#comet #photography #science #scicomm

setiinstitute, 10 days ago to science

https://www.astronomy.com/science/what-happens-when-we-detect-alien-life-2/

We’ve never heard a peep from aliens. But improved technology is speeding up the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI), so what happens if today’s silence suddenly gives way to tomorrow’s discovery of alien life? Would the world rejoice in the news that someone’s out there? Would euphoria engulf humanity, as Nobel Prizes are doled out like after-dinner mints?

#seti #science #scicomm

setiinstitute, 11 days ago to SciComm

Next #SETILive: The Nova of a Lifetime
TODAY, 9 May, 2:30 PM PST

Observers with the SETI/Unistellar Network have been watching T Coronae Borealis since last summer and now monitor it daily through the Cosmic Cataclysms citizen science program. Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she talks to Dr. Tom Esposito, SETI researcher and Lead of the Cosmic Cataclysms program, about this exciting nova and the efforts to catch it!

WATCH LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4OQP5M0GBI&ab_channel=SETIInstitute

#scicomm #space #science

setiinstitute, 11 days ago to space

#PPOD: This is how NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft saw Neptune, the other blue planet, in true color on 17 August 1989, based on a re-analysis of the original data by Patrick G J Irwin et al 2024. Credit: NASA/Voyager 2/PDS/OPUS/Ardenau4

#space #science #neptune #scicomm

setiinstitute, 11 days ago to Podcast

The invention of the screw was over 2300 years ago. Yet this simple object remains the fastener in nearly every modern-day invention. This week, Big Picture Science unwinds the history and importance of ingenious and deceptively simple devices in: “Nuts and Bolts”.

Listen here: https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/nuts-and-bolts

#podcast #stem #scicomm #science

setiinstitute, 11 days ago to ai

https://spectrum.ieee.org/artificial-general-intelligence-2668132497

Thinking about artificial general intelligence (AGI) calls to mind another poorly understood and speculative phenomenon with the potential for transformative impacts on humankind. We believe that the SETI Institute’s efforts to detect advanced extraterrestrial intelligence demonstrate several valuable concepts that can be adapted for AGI research.

#seti #ai #agi #scicomm #science