Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring material on Earth, but a supercomputer just modeled stuff that’s even harder. Called a ‘super-diamond,’ the theoretical material could exist beyond our planet—and maybe, one day, be created here on Earth.Do We Have to Send Humans to Mars for Exploration?Like normal diamonds, super-diamonds are made from carbon atoms. This specific phase of carbon, composed of eight atoms, should be stable at ambient conditions. In other words, it could exist in an Earth laboratory.The specific…

NASA’s Europa Clipper is launching in October, and it’s set to unveil the secrets of one of the most intriguing celestial bodies in our solar system. Coming along for the ride is a commemorative plate that symbolizes humanity’s fascination with Jupiter’s mysterious moon Europa and our relentless quest to find extraterrestrial life.The M3 MacBook Airs are as Good as Ever, and That’s the ProblemEuropa represents a fascinating target. The Jovian moon is of huge interest to scientists, primarily due to its suspected ocean,…

A recent SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) effort focused on a famous supernova from 1987, working under the premise that aliens might use such events to draw attention to themselves with synchronized beacons. Although this hunt came up short, it lays the groundwork for future searches using the same innovative strategy.Nvidia’s Almost Worth 2 Trillion. Is It a Bubble, or Is It Just Getting Started?This principle, called the SETI Ellipsoid strategy, offers a potential solution to a challenging problem: How…

Exoplanets pushing their atmospheres away may explain a gap in exoplanet masses, according to a team of researchers that recently studied data from NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope.What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?The activity could explain an absence of exoplanets with masses between 1.5 to 2 times the size of Earth, according to findings published this week in The Astronomical Journal.“Exoplanet scientists have enough data now to say that this gap is not a fluke,” said Jessie Christiansen, a research…

The Webb Space Telescope has revealed a world quite alien compared to our own: WASP-107b, a Neptune-like gas giant that orbits a star some 211 light-years from Earth. Webb has now detected water vapor and sulfur dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere, as well as sand-like silicate clouds.Webb Telescope Images the Pillars of CreationThe planet’s atmosphere is not dense, allowing a team of astronomers to peer deeply into the world using the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The team’s work was published today in…

The SETI Institute, a leading non-profit in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has received a transformative $200 million gift from the estate of Franklin Antonio, a long-time supporter who passed away last year.What Inspired Dominic Monaghan's Performance in Moriarty?The recent $200 million gift from Franklin Antonio’s estate, announced last week, will likely serve as a game-changer for the SETI Institute. Antonio was a big supporter of the Institute’s work for more than 12 years, and his donation is expected…

Researchers think they’ve gotten a glimpse at how gas giants like Jupiter form, thanks to a remarkable image of a distant star system.First Full-Color Images From Webb Space TelescopeAt the heart of the system is V960 Mon, a young star about 5,000 light-years away, in the constellation Monoceros. The star brightened to about 20 times its normal levels in 2014, allowing a research team using the European Southern Observatory’s Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research instrument, or SPHERE, to image it. The…

The search for planets outside our Solar System – exoplanets – is one of the most rapidly growing fields in astronomy. Over the past few decades, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been detected and astronomers now estimate that on average there is at least one planet per star in our galaxy.What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?Many current research efforts aim at detecting Earth-like planets suitable for life. These endeavours focus on so-called “main sequence” stars like our Sun – stars which are powered by fusing…

About 40 light-years from Earth, a set of seven Earth-sized planets are orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1. Now, scientists studying the system with the Webb Space Telescope have found one of them, TRAPPIST-1 c, either lacks an atmosphere or has a very thin one, indicating that habitable planets may be fewer and farther between in the universe.Webb Telescope Images the Pillars of CreationThe observations follow the Webb investigation of TRAPPIST-1 b, another world in the set. TRAPPIST-1 balso lacked an atmosphere, or the…

It’s been two and a half years since the Arecibo Observatory’s collapse, and the future of the famous radio telescope’s site remains in limbo. Now, observatory astronomers have refined their plans for Arecibo’s successor by reducing the scope of their plans.First Full-Color Images From Webb Space TelescopeThe downsizing appears to be a result of lack of funding; even before the telescope’s collapse in December 2020, the National Science Foundation was seeking to reduce its spending on the massive observatory, according to…