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SETI Institute
@setiinstitute.bsky.social
16K followers 370 following 1.8K posts
Our mission is to lead humanity’s quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and share that knowledge.
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SETI Institute @setiinstitute.bsky.social · 8d
PRESS RELEASE:
The SETI Institute is pleased to open the call for applications for the 2026 Mino Postdoctoral Fellowship. This research program offers an exceptional opportunity for talented early-career scientists worldwide to contribute significant advances in several fields. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
SETI Institute logo. Text: SETI Institute invites applications for the 2026 Mino Postdoctoral Fellowship. Background: Photo of physicist Minoru Freund standing in front of a spacecraft model.
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Dr. Souvik Bose focuses on unravelling the dynamics of the solar atmosphere with coordinated high-resolution ground- and space-based observations, using instruments on NASA’s IRIS, SDO and NASA-JAXA’s Hinode missions, among others.

#SETI #NotJustAliens 🧪 🔭
Text: #notjustaliens. Souvik Bose, Solar Physics. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of Souvik Bose outside in the snow. Text: Dr. Souvik Bose focuses on unravelling the dynamics of the solar atmosphere with coordinated high-resolution ground- and space-based observations, using instruments on NASA’s IRIS, SDO and NASA-JAXA’s Hinode missions, among others. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it. Text: Dr. Bose also works on computing synthetic observations from high-resolution MHD simulation snapshots using a variety of radiative transfer codes. He is involved in the data modeling and development of the upcoming MUSE mission. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets. SETI Institute logo. Graphics: (top) Black hole. (bottom) radio telescope dishes at the Allen Telescope Array. Background: Starry night sky.
November 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Avian influenza is taking a heavy toll on birds and other animals. We look at what gives H5N1 its staying power and why, when we have poultry vaccines, we don’t use them. It’s “Flu the Coop” on @bipisci.bsky.social. 🧪 #podcast

Listen here: bigpicturescience.org/episodes/flu...
Brown chickens in a large, mesh coop.
November 29, 2025 at 12:00 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
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. 🧪 👩‍🔬
SETI Institute logo. Text: Proposal Writing Workshop using NASA ROSES as an Example. 3 January 2026, 09:00 - 16:00 MST, Phoenix Convention Center. Speaker Christina Richey, Director of Partnerships and Business Development. Separate Registration Fee Required. Inset: Photo of Dr. Christina Richey with short, aqua hair, long star earrings, a gray cardigan, and a blue draped blouse. Also includes the AAS logo.
November 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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#PPOD: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered a first of its kind: a crisp mid-infrared image of a system of four serpentine spirals of dust, one expanding beyond the next in precisely the same pattern. (The fourth is almost transparent, at the edges of JWST's image.) 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
This image shows four shells of dust expanding out from a bright central star. The innermost shell is bright and spirals like a snake around the star. The next shell is fainter and orange and echoes the serpent-like shape. The third shell is even more diffuse and faint and shown in red. The fourth and outermost shell is incredibly diffuse and seen as dusty pink streaks. Two foreground stars are also shown with JWST's tell-tale refraction spikes.
November 28, 2025 at 4:01 PM
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#PPOD: NASA’s Europa Clipper captured this image of a starfield — and the planet Uranus — on Nov. 5, 2025, while experimenting with one of its two stellar reference units. These star-tracking cameras are used for maintaining spacecraft orientation. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 🧪 🔭
A starfield with seven stars circled and labeled in orange: HD 22225, HD 21335, 66 Ari, 65 Ari, 63 Ari, 61 Ari, and zeta Ari. An additional white spot is circled in blue and is labeled Uranus.
November 27, 2025 at 8:01 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
To all of our community, we wish you a wonderful, relaxing, peaceful, and joyful Thanksgiving Holiday! Enjoy this time with friends and family, and travel safe. We hope all of you can find reason to pause and give thanks at this special time of year. Thank you for being a part of our journey! 🦃 🙏
Illustration of a wreath made of pumpkins, planets, and moons with leaves and berries mixed in. Text: Happy Thanksgiving. SETI Institute logo. Background: Bright yellow threads of solar plasma.
November 27, 2025 at 4:01 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Dr. Shania Nichols is a physicist with a background in gravitational wave detector characterization and astronomy. She graduated with her PhD in Physics from Louisiana State University in 2024 and is currently a NANOGrav Physics Frontier Center Postdoctoral Researcher. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 #NotJustAliens
Text: #notjustaliens. Shania Nichols, Astrophysics. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of Shania Nichols. Text: Dr. Shania Nichols is a physicist with a background in gravitational wave detector characterization and astronomy. She graduated with her PhD in Physics from Louisiana State University in 2024 and is currently a NANOGrav Physics Frontier Center Postdoctoral Researcher. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it. Text: Dr. Nichols researches pulsar timing for the NANOGrav Collaboration, which uses rapidly spinning neutron stars to detect nanohertz gravitational waves. She develops methods to model and improve timing precision due to a pulse profile shape change in one of the array’s most precisely timed millisecond pulsars. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets. SETI Institute logo. Graphics: (top) Black hole. (bottom) radio telescope dishes at the Allen Telescope Array. Background: Starry night sky.
November 27, 2025 at 12:00 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
On our latest #SETILive #podcast, @planetarypan.bsky.social asked Dr. Eric Boyd to explain what it means when he says a microbe breathes in two ways. Listen to the full episode at feeds.libsyn.com/462636/rss 🧪 👩‍🔬
November 26, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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#PPOD: Kimiya Yui captured this photo of southern Europe and the northwestern Mediterranean coast from the ISS as it orbited 261 miles above Earth on Aug. 30, 2025. At left, the Po Valley urban corridor in Italy shines with the metropolitan areas of Milan and Turin. Credit: JAXA/Kimiya Yui 🧪 🔭
Photo from space of the surface of Earth as seen at night. The limb of the atmosphere is at the bottom of the image and is a hazy blue strip separating Earth from space. The region photographed is Italy and its surroundings, with lights sprawling nearly everywhere.
November 26, 2025 at 4:02 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Proposal Writing Workshop: Using NASA ROSES as an Example (Session @ SCIWS2)

For those attending the Fall American Geophysical Union (#AGU25) Meeting, an all-day proposal writing workshop will be sponsored by the NASA Science Mission Directorate and hosted by Dr. Christina Richey. 🧪 👩‍🔬
SETI Institute logo. Text: Proposal writing workshop using NASA ROSES as an example, Session SCIWS2, 15 December 2025, 08:30 - 17:00 CST, New Orleans Convention Center. Speaker Christina Richey, Director of Parnterships and Business Development. Separate Registration Fee Required. AGU25 logo. Inset: Photograph of Dr. Richey with short, aqua hair, long starry earrings, a gray cardigan, and blue draped top.
November 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
In a recent SETI Live episode, @planetarypan.bsky.social spoke with UC Santa Cruz postdoctoral researcher Dr. Artem Aguichine about his work modeling the interiors and atmospheres of steam worlds, a class of water-rich exoplanets wrapped in thick, high-temperature water vapor. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
November 25, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by SETI Institute
eos.org
New observations of Uranus’s small inner moons to be presented at #AGU25 reveal that they’re darker, redder, and more water-poor than their larger counterparts. And they’re not always where they should be. 🧪🔭🪐 eos.org/articles/ura...
Uranus’s Small Moons Are Dark, Red, and Water-Poor - Eos
…Except for Mab, which is even weirder than expected.
eos.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter keeps gathering information from its orbit around Mars to understand its ancient past and potential habitability. The spacecraft was cruising over the southern highlands of Terra Cimmeria, some 400 km above the Martian surface... 🧪 🔭
Five vertical composite images of Mars' atmosphere, revealing multi-colored layers heading into the limb of space.
November 25, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by SETI Institute
skymapper.bsky.social
Our CEO @allplanets.bsky.social visited the HR MacMillan Space Centre to talk exoplanets and how SkyMapper’s decentralized network will accelerate discovery.

Huge thanks to the @setiinstitute.bsky.social team for hosting us and giving us space to share the future of sky observation. 🌌
November 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
This month, we are continuing our profile series featuring our exceptional SETI AIR program Advisors.

Meet Dorka Keehn, who has been part of the AIR program’s DNA for many years. Dorka is an accomplished artist and culture powerhouse who is responsible for bringing major public art projects... 🧪 🐡
SETI AIR Newsletter - November 2025
www.seti.org
November 25, 2025 at 12:00 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Since 2005, the number of wild and domesticated birds killed by H5N1 has exceeded the combined human populations of the U.S. and Russia. On the next @bipisci.bsky.social, why this version of avian influenza won’t go away. 🧪 #podcast

Listen here: bigpicturescience.org/episodes/flu...
Brown chickens in a large, mesh coop.
November 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile have captured this eye-catching image of planetary nebula Abell 33. Created when an aging star blew off its outer layers, this beautiful blue bubble is, by chance, aligned with a foreground star... 🧪 🔭

Credit: ESO
A nearly perfectly circular bubble of blue gas is captured in this photo. At the bottom right, there is a foreground star that shines brightly and gives the bubble the appearance of a diamond ring. Numerous background stars and distant galaxies can also be seen scattered throughout the image.
November 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
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#ICYMI: On #SETILive, @planetarypan.bsky.social chatted with Dr. Georgina Miles and Dr. Carly Howett about the discovery that the subsurface ocean beneath the surface of Saturn's icy moon #Enceladus has been stable... but what does that mean for the possibility of life? It's all about time! 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
November 22, 2025 at 10:01 PM
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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
Text: #notjustaliens. Navdeep Panesar, Solar Physics. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of Navdeep Panesar. Text: 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. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it. Text: Dr. Panesar’s research focuses on using multi-instrument solar observations to investigate the formation and eruption mechanisms of different types of solar coronal jets and minifilaments. She also studies the magnetic field evolution at the base of these features. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets. SETI Institute logo. Graphics: (top) Black hole. (bottom) radio telescope dishes at the Allen Telescope Array. Background: Starry night sky.
November 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM
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One of the best-known proponents of string theory, Brian Greene, explains why it remains the most comprehensive theory for understanding the fundamental laws of nature. But can it even be tested? It’s Skeptic Check: String Theory on @bipisci.bsky.social. 🧪

Listen here: buff.ly/SOmv0qH

#podcast
Photo of theoretical physicist Brian Greene in front of a blackboard full of differential equations.
November 22, 2025 at 12:01 AM
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When a faint, fast-moving speck named 3I/ATLAS slipped into view earlier this year, it carried more than a whiff of cosmic intrigue. Only two other confirmed interstellar objects have ever wandered through our Solar System, and both left scientists with more questions than answers. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
November 21, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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A team demonstrated that more than 80% of moss spores left on the outside of the ISS for nine months and brought back to Earth germinated normally. The findings confirm that moss spores, already known to be hardy, handily survive the stresses of near-Earth orbit. 🧪 👩‍🔬

Learn more:
Moss Can Survive the Harsh Conditions of Space
A months-long sojourn outside the International Space Station didn't phase these plants.
time.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
#PPOD: On 17 March 2023, one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites captured this rare cloud-free image of Deception Island, an active volcanic caldera located in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery 🧪
A cloud-free satellite image of Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. The island forms an almost-closed horseshoe with a small opening near the bottom right of the image. Two sets of snow-covered peaks line the bottom and right of the horseshoe.
November 21, 2025 at 4:03 PM
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Dr. Agata Zupanska brings a biologist’s perspective to the quest for understanding life. She tests the limits of terrestrial plant life and works on preparing plants for deep space human missions, all with a goal to advance deep space exploration. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
Text: #notjustaliens. Agata Zupanska, Molecular Biology. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of Agata Zupanska. Text: Dr. Agata Zupanska brings a biologist’s perspective to the quest for understanding life. She tests the limits of terrestrial plant life and works on preparing plants for deep space human missions, all with a goal to advance deep space exploration. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it. Text: Dr. Zupanska is particularly interested in spaceflight microgravity and uses the International Space Station laboratory for her research experiments. She also conducts experiments with high-energy ion beams at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, to explore how plants can withstand cosmic ionizing radiation that pervades deep space. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets. SETI Institute logo. Graphics: (top) Black hole. (bottom) radio telescope dishes at the Allen Telescope Array. Background: Starry night sky.
November 21, 2025 at 12:00 AM
setiinstitute.bsky.social
PRESS RELEASE:
The SETI Institute is pleased to open the call for applications for the 2026 Mino Postdoctoral Fellowship. This research program offers an exceptional opportunity for talented early-career scientists worldwide to contribute significant advances in several fields. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬
SETI Institute logo. Text: SETI Institute invites applications for the 2026 Mino Postdoctoral Fellowship. Background: Photo of physicist Minoru Freund standing in front of a spacecraft model.
November 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM