New exoplanet detection program for citizen scientists

The SETI Institute and its partner Unistellar are launching a new exoplanet detection program that will engage citizen scientists worldwide. Amateur astronomers, using either Unistellar's eVscope or another telescope, will ...

What part of a space rock survives all the way to the ground?

When a small asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere from space, its surface is brutally heated, causing melting and fragmenting. Therefore, why the rocks near the surface survive to the ground as meteorites has been somewhat ...

Cosmic 'dust' from supernovae hints at how stars are born

New research detected strong polarization from a young supernova remnant. It provided independent and solid evidence that the cosmic dust in the early universe was formed in supernovae. While it's true that supernovae eject ...

Rare 4000-year comets can cause meteor showers on Earth

Comets that circle the Sun in very elongated orbits spread their debris so thin along their orbit or eject it out of the solar system altogether so that their meteor showers are hard to detect. From a new meteor shower survey ...

Asteroid that hit Botswana in 2018 likely came from Vesta

An international team of researchers searched for pieces of a small asteroid tracked in space and then observed to impact Botswana on June 2, 2018. Guided by SETI Institute meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens, they found ...

Is there life on Mars today and where?

In a comment published today in Nature Astronomy, Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute, challenges assumptions about the possibility of modern life on Mars held by many ...

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