Dr. Andrew Lincowski works with Dr. Victoria Meadows on simulating and characterizing terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres. He is the current developer of the Virtual Planetary Laboratory 1D climate model (initially developed by Dr. David Crisp and Prof. Tyler Robinson). #NotJustAliens 🧪 🔭

Top #PPOD of 2025 - Number 1: On Top of Jezero NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has crested the top of Jezero Crater’s rim at a location the science team calls “Lookout Hill” and is rolling toward its first science stop after the months-long climb. 🧪 🔭

Top #PPOD of 2025 - Number 2: Three Planets at HR8799 This image shows the light from three planets orbiting a star 120 light-years away. The planet's star, HR8799, is located at the spot marked with an "X." This picture was taken using a small 1.5-meter section of the Palomar Observatory's... 🧪 🔭

A new year begins, and with it, new worlds to explore. Thank you for supporting the science that brings us closer to understanding our place in the cosmos. Here’s to discovery in 2026! ✨ 👉 Give now: tinyurl.com/newworlds-6

Top #PPOD of 2025 - Number 3: Mercury Transit On 3 January 2023, Mercury crossed the Solar Orbiter spacecraft’s field of view, resulting in a solar transit in which Mercury appeared as a perfectly black circle moving across the face of a very active Sun. 🧪 🔭

As we close 2025, today is your last chance to make a tax-deductible year-end gift to Next Year: New Worlds. Every contribution moves us closer to understanding our place in the cosmos and to discovering the worlds waiting beyond our own. Make your gift today: tinyurl.com/newworlds-5

Top #PPOD opf 2025 - Number 4: Shocking Spherules This image from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover, a fusion-processed SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaic, shows part of the “St. Pauls Bay” target, acquired from the lower Witch Hazel Hill area of the Jezero crater rim. 🧪 🔭

I love the textures in this image so much! I painted it a few years ago, a more abstract-looking piece. #watercolor #SciArt #SpaceArt

Top #PPOD of 2025 - Number 5: The Jagged Shores of Pluto’s Highlands This enhanced color view from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft zooms in on the southeastern portion of Pluto's great ice plains, where at lower right the plains border rugged, dark highlands informally named Krun Macula. 🧪 🔭

#PPOD: How do planetary systems like our own take shape? Data from ESA’s Gaia space telescope is offering a rare look inside the dusty birthplaces of stars and planets. This collage shows 31 young star systems, observed in orange and purple by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). 🧪 🔭

Dr. Navdeep Panesar received her Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen, Germany. She is currently a Research Scientist at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) and the SETI Institute. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 #NotJustAliens

This month saw the official launch of the Planetary Futures Public Art Residency and the welcome of our newest artist-in-residence, Adrien Segal. Adrien weaves together science, landscape, data, and materiality to create cross-disciplinary sculptural works that evoke deep emotional responses... 🧪 🐡

#PPOD: This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the largest planet-forming disk ever observed around a young star. It spans nearly 400 billion miles — 40 times the diameter of our solar system. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen from Earth, the dark, dusty disk resembles a hamburger. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Breaking: The ATA picked up an unexpected signal… turns out it was Santa, piloting a saucer through the Saturn system. He was navigating the icy fractures of Enceladus to deliver presents to any single-celled residents who might be hiding in its subsurface ocean. 🎅🪐🛸 Happy Holidays!

Intelligent life may be far more uncommon than once assumed. In a recent #SETILive discussion, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center Dr. Simon Steel spoke with Dr. Manuel Scherf and Dr. Helmut Lammer of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to examine new models of planetary habitability. 🧪

In November, SETI Institute researchers contributed expert perspectives to media stories on interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS and recent experiments testing the survival of plant life in space. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 Read the full stories: www.seti.org/news/seti-in...

#PPOD: During November 2025, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) used five of its science instruments to observe 3I/ATLAS. The instruments collected information about how the comet is behaving and what it is made of. 🧪 🔭 Credit: ESA/Juice/NavCam

In a recent SETI Live, @planetarypan.bsky.social spoke with @allplanets.bsky.social, Senior Planetary Astronomer at the SETI Institute, to introduce @skymapper.bsky.social, a global network of smart telescopes and all-sky sensors designed to expand access to astronomical observations. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Whether alien invasions, zombie plagues, or killer rocks from space, disaster movies never lose their appeal. We look at what they reveal about our anxieties, and why so many unfold in one American city in particular. It’s Movie Mayhem on @bipisci.bsky.social. 🧪 Listen here: buff.ly/W9UjT3E

#PPOD: This image shows a new impact crater on Mars that formed between July and September 2018. It's notable because it occurred in the seasonal southern ice cap and has apparently punched through it, creating a two-toned blast pattern. 🧪 🔭 Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Dr. Lauren Sgro is a Postdoctoral Fellow focused on exoplanet research, working with citizen scientists to observe exoplanet transits through the Unistellar Network. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 #Exoplanets #Space #Science #SETI #NotJustAliens

The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1, 2025. There is currently no evidence to suggest that it is anything other than a natural astrophysical object. However, given the small number of such objects known (only three to date), and the plausibility of interstellar probes... 🧪

In our most recent #SETILive #podcast, @allplanets.bsky.social introduced his latest project, @skymapper.bsky.social, a decentralized network of telescopes. Here, he explains what he hopes the company will become in ten years. Listen to the full interview: feeds.libsyn.com/462636/rss 🧪 🔭

Curiosity brings people together. Infrastructure keeps them collaborating. #SETIConstellations by @setiinstitute.bsky.social connects communities w/ real space science. Our CEO @allplanets.bsky.social has been building toward this for years: accessible telescopes now linked into a global network.

#PPOD: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an uncommon sight – the death of a low-mass star – in this image of the Calabash Nebula released on Feb. 3, 2017. Here, we can see the star going through a rapid transformation from a red giant to a planetary nebula... 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

REMINDER: We are currently accepting applications to the Mino Postdoctoral Fellowship. This research program offers an exceptional opportunity for talented early-career scientists worldwide to contribute significant advances in the following fields: 🧪

Dr. Marziye Jafariyazani is a Data Scientist for NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) Mission at the SETI Institute, where she is part of the Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC) for the TESS mission at NASA’s Ames Research Center. #NotJustAliens 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

#PPOD: A flash of lightning, and then—something else. High above a storm, a crimson figure blinks in and out of existence. If you see it, you are a lucky witness of a sprite, one of the least-understood electrical phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Credit: Nicolas Escurat; Text: Miles Hatfield 🧪

A new moon. An interstellar comet. An intriguing biosignature. An advance in signal detection. And so much more! Across the SETI Institute, this year brought remarkable progress in our search for life and our understanding of the cosmos. 🧪 🔭

In a recent SETI Live, @goastromo.bsky.social spoke with @sierragrant.bsky.social and @gcugno.bsky.social about their analysis of CT Cha b – a distant, planetary-mass companion surrounded by a compact moon-forming disk. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 Learn more: www.seti.org/news/baby-mo...

#PPOD: #NASAJuno captures dramatic atmospheric features in Jupiter's northern hemisphere during its 18th close flyby of the gas giant. The swirling clouds surround a circular feature within the "Jet N6" region of the jet stream. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS / @kevinmgill.bsky.social 🧪 🔭

A year-long SETI Institute investigation into a flickering pulsar has revealed how radio waves warp as they travel through deep space, offering a powerful new tool for distinguishing natural cosmic noise from potential alien transmissions. 🧪 Learn more: thedebrief.org/seti-institu...

On this @bipisci.bsky.social, we admire the diversity of trees, from the awe-inspiring 5,000-year-old Methuselah species to the sentinels of the swamps that protect wetlands, and we find out why their future is intertwined with ours. 🧪 Listen here: bigpicturescience.org/episodes/bes...

PRESS RELEASE The Cosmic Chronicles Literary Award is a new contest for emerging authors from the SETI Institute’s Artist in Residence (AIR) program. The winner of the Cosmic Chronicles Literary Award 2025 is awarded a $1,000 prize, while the finalists receive $100 each. 🧪 🐡 #sciart

#PPOD: When the Sun, Moon, and Earth align just right, moonlight meets the mist at the base of a great waterfall. The result is a moonbow: a rainbow born not of daylight, but of reflected lunar light. Credit: @joshduryphotomedia.bsky.social 🧪 🔭 📷

#PPOD: These polar dunes on Mars show both carbon dioxide frost (the white colored areas) along with darker material that’s been exposed due to sublimation, and is blown by the wind to form these dark spots. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona 🧪 🔭

On our latest #SETILive #podcast, Dr Carly Howett from the University of Oxford explains the kinds of Earth analogues that may exist for the subsurface ocean environment of Enceladus. Hydrothermal vents, anyone? Listen to the full episode: feeds.libsyn.com/462636/rss 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

#ICYMI: On #SETILive, @kosmichh.bsky.social chatted with Manuel Scherf and Helmut Lammer about what makes Earth so special that intelligent life evolved and how those circumstances may lower the chances of similar life on other worlds. Watch the full interview: youtube.com/live/qy8spTZ... 🧪 🔭

Dr. Victoria Meadows leads the massively interdisciplinary NASA Virtual Planetary Laboratory, which she started in 2001 with the goal of developing a scientific foundation for the search for habitability and life beyond the Solar System. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 #Exoplanets #Space #Science #SETI #NotJustAliens

The lightest and most abundant gas in the universe is hydrogen. How scientists figured out how it powers the stars, and the history of other invisible gases in our atmosphere, on this week’s @bipisci.bsky.social, “A Real Gas.” 🧪 Listen here: bigpicturescience.org/episodes/a-r... #science #podcast

The SETI Institute’s Artist in Residence (AIR) program announced that American artist Adrien Segal is the recipient of the Planetary Futures Public Art Residency. This research-creation residency invites the artist to collaborate with scientists whose work advances planetary science... 🧪 🐡 #sciart

#PPOD: This image, released by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), shows a view of the Earth captured by the Tianwen-2 probe on May 30, 2025, and post-processed by scientific researchers. 🧪 🔭 Credit: CNSA/Handout via Xinhua

Dr. Rachel Morgan is an Optical Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. She completed her undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering and Physics at MIT. She then continued at MIT for graduate school as a NASA Space Technology and Research Fellow and an Amelia Earhart Fellow. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 #NotJustAliens

On our latest #SETILive #podcast, Beth chatted with Dr. Artem Aguichine about steam worlds, rocky exoplanets close enough to their host stars to have water in gas form rather than liquid or solid. Listen to the full episode: feeds.libsyn.com/462636/rss 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

#PPOD: After a seven-year journey on board the Cassini spacecraft, ESA’s Huygens probe reached Titan’s surface, marking the most distant landing ever achieved by a spacecraft. During the descent, its cameras collected data on the dense atmosphere and took the first-ever images of the surface. 🧪 🔭

Proposal Writing Workshop: Using NASA ROSES as an Example For those attending the winter American Astronomical Society (#AAS247) Meeting, an all-day proposal writing workshop will be sponsored by the NASA Science Mission Directorate and hosted by Dr. Christina Richey. 🧪 👩‍🔬

217 exoplanets. 10 potentially habitable worlds. That’s what 2025 revealed. Imagine what we can discover in 2026 — only with your help by supporting Next Year: New Worlds 🌍✨ 👉 Give now: tinyurl.com/newworlds-2

PRESS RELEASE SETI Institute tracks pulsar “twinkle” to reveal how space distorts radio signals For 10 months, a SETI Institute–led team watched pulsar PSR J0332+5434 (also called B0329+54) to study how its radio signal “twinkles” as it passes through gas between the star and Earth. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

#PPOD: This is a spectacular NASA Hubble Space Telescope close-up view of an electric-blue aurora that is eerily glowing one half billion miles away on the giant planet Jupiter. Auroras are curtains of light resulting from high-energy electrons racing along the planet's magnetic field... 🧪 🔭

From Earth's extremities to distant exoplanets, Dr. Nathalie Cabrol is searching for life. As Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, she explores how life begins, how intelligence evolves, and how curiosity might connect us across the cosmos. 🧪 👩‍🔬 Read more: