SETI Institute Courses

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
• On-Demand
• 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
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Could Aliens See Us? What Earth's Technosphere Reveals

Explore Earth's potential futures over the next millennium and discover how our technosphere might appear to alien civilizations searching for life across the galaxy.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• On-Demand
• 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
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Worlds of Fire - What Molten Exoplanets Teach Us About Planet Formation

Explore cutting-edge research on molten rocky exoplanets with fiery magma oceans, uncovering how these extreme worlds form, evolve, and reveal secrets about planetary system diversity.

• YouTube
• 35 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Birth of Planets - JWST Spots Hot Mineral Condensation in a Proto-Stellar System

Discover how planets begin forming as JWST and ALMA detect silicon monoxide condensation in protoplanetary disk HOPS-315, revealing the earliest stages of rocky planet formation.

• YouTube
• 35 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Space Weather Alert - Sunspots, Coronal Holes, and Space Storms

Explore solar storms, coronal holes, and space weather impacts on Earth's technology with heliophysicist Dr. Becca Robinson in this live discussion about our restless Sun.

• YouTube
• 41 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Hidden Habitability - What Dawn Discovered Beneath Ceres' Icy Crust

Discover how NASA's Dawn mission revealed Ceres may have sustained habitability far longer than expected, with persistent geologic activity and brine movement beneath its icy surface.

• YouTube
• 37 minutes
• On-Demand
• 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
• On-Demand
• 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
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Do Aliens Speak Physics? And Other Questions about Science and the Nature of Reality

Explore whether physics is universal or shaped by human perception through a fascinating discussion on communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence via scientific concepts.

• YouTube
• 44 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

The Hidden Ocean of Ariel - Tidal Forces and the Case for a Watery Past

Discover evidence of Ariel's ancient subsurface ocean through geological mapping and tidal-stress modeling, exploring how Uranus's moon may have harbored conditions for life.

• YouTube
• 41 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Comet 3I/ATLAS Perihelion Update

Discover the secrets of Comet 3I/ATLAS, a rare interstellar visitor from another star system, as astronomers race to study this cosmic traveler before its 2025 perihelion.

• YouTube
• 50 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

This Microbe Breathes Two Ways! The Bacteria That Challenge Biochemistry

Discover groundbreaking bacteria that simultaneously perform aerobic and anaerobic respiration, revolutionizing our understanding of cellular life and inspiring biotechnology innovations.

• YouTube
• 40 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Closest Exoplanet Yet? JWST Reveals Neighboring Planet Candidate

Discover JWST's groundbreaking detection of a Saturn-mass gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A, our nearest solar twin just 4 light-years away, using advanced coronagraph techniques.

• YouTube
• 38 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video