SETI Institute Courses

Why is Mars Red? New Research Suggests Ferrihydrite is the Key

Discover how new research by Dr. Janice Bishop suggests Mars' red color comes from ferrihydrite—a water-rich mineral—rather than hematite, indicating the planet once had abundant liquid water before drying up billions of years ago.

• YouTube
• 34 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Is Intelligent Life Easy? Human-Like Life Probably Evolves "Right on Time"

Explore a new model challenging the "hard steps" theory of intelligent life evolution, suggesting human-like intelligence may be a natural planetary outcome occurring within sequential "windows of habitability."

• YouTube
• 30 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Tiny Asteroids, Big Threats: JWST Reveals a Hidden World of Mini Asteroids

Discover how JWST detected 138 tiny asteroids as small as 10 meters, revealing insights about asteroid behavior and potential Earth threats. Learn about the significance of these findings for planetary defense.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Red Planet, Blue Past: How Rain Shaped the Martian Landscape

Explore groundbreaking research suggesting ancient Mars experienced significant precipitation that carved valley networks, challenging previous theories of a cold, dry planet and offering new insights into Mars' potential to have supported life.

• YouTube
• 33 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Mars' Ancient Carbon Cycle - How Rocks on Mars Tell the Story of a Vanishing Climate

Discover how NASA's Curiosity rover found rare iron carbonate minerals in Martian rocks, revealing Mars' lost atmosphere and ancient climate that parallels Earth's carbon processes.

• YouTube
• 33 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Titan's Missing Deltas? What Cassini Saw and What It Didn't

Explore the puzzling absence of river deltas on Saturn's moon Titan, as researchers analyze Cassini mission data to understand why this moon's shorelines defy Earth-based geological expectations despite having rivers and methane seas.

• YouTube
• 28 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

A Cookbook of Life: How Chemistry Might Explain Life on Other Planets

Explore groundbreaking research identifying 270+ self-replicating chemical reactions that may have sparked life on Earth and beyond, reframing our understanding of how life emerges and helping us search for extraterrestrial life.

• YouTube
• 30 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Chasing Martian Microbes: A New Technique for Finding Microbial Fossils in Minerals

Discover how chemical analysis techniques can detect microbial fossils in minerals, potentially revolutionizing our search for past life on Mars through the journey of Youcef Sellam's research from Algerian gypsum to space exploration.

• YouTube
• 32 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

How Ceres Froze Over - Modeling the Ice-Rich Crust of an Evolving Dwarf Planet

Explore how Ceres' subsurface ocean froze from top down, creating ice-rich surface layers through groundbreaking simulations and deformation models of this unique dwarf planet.

• YouTube
• 36 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Looking for Life on Mars - Lessons from Viking Experiments and the Atacama Desert

Explore the controversial Viking Mars experiments and discover why following salt traces, rather than water, might be key to finding extraterrestrial life in extremely dry environments.

• YouTube
• 27 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

55 Cancri e: A Rocky World with a Thick Atmosphere

Explore how super-Earth 55 Cancri e's atmosphere and magma oceans provide insights into the early conditions of Mars, Venus, and Earth, based on recent JWST observations and research findings.

• YouTube
• 30 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Earth as an Exoplanet - Using Remote Sensing Data to Find Habitable Worlds

Explore how scientists use Earth as a model to detect habitable exoplanets through the LIFE mission, examining remote sensing techniques and biosignature detection methods.

• YouTube
• 29 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Finding Indicators of Nuclear Activity in Open-Source Images Using AI and ML

Explore cutting-edge AI/ML techniques for detecting nuclear activity indicators through open-source imagery analysis, presented by SETI Institute researchers in this technical deep dive.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 2 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Have We Really Detected Dyson Spheres? The Real Story

Explore recent astronomical discoveries of potential Dyson spheres with SETI experts as they analyze evidence and discuss implications for detecting advanced civilizations in our galaxy.

• YouTube
• 14 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory First Look - Stunning Images and Asteroids Aplenty

Explore the groundbreaking NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's first stunning images of nebulae, galaxies, and newly discovered asteroids, plus insights into the upcoming LSST mission.

• YouTube
• 34 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video