Articles

Kate Howells

SETI is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, using various techniques to look for signals from advanced alien civilizations. METI (messaging extraterrestrial intelligence) is when we send out our own signals for aliens to find.

The Downlink

The real science of aliens, the policy implications of ET, and new views of worlds beyond our own.

Kate Howells

An exploration of whether aliens are out there, what kind of extraterrestrial life is most likely to exist, and how we're looking for it.

Kate Howells

When searching for extraterrestrial life, we have to base our hunt on what we know about life on our own planet. This may seem limiting, but there's a lot we can learn from the astonishingly diverse lifeforms we have here on Earth.

The Downlink

When we combine data sources, collaborate with each other, and invite artistic perspectives, we can better understand the Universe we live in.

Casey Dreier

Will a SETI signal unite or divide us?

The Downlink

Explore the two-faced Moon and meet two new projects paving the way for the future of space science.

Bruce Betts

The new STEP Grants program is designed to regularly compete a significant portion of The Planetary Society’s science and technology portfolio.

The Downlink

The newest issue of The Planetary Report takes a look at the James Webb Space Telescope and what it will teach us about the cosmos.

Jason Davis

Theoretical work in SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, is dominated by two key concepts: the Fermi paradox and the Drake equation.

Jason Davis

Arecibo helped us explore the cosmos and our solar system, search for life, and defend Earth from potentially dangerous asteroids.

Casey Dreier

If you're expecting to gather with extended family on Thanksgiving, avoid the politics. Here are some conversation starters to use at the dinner table that everyone can engage in.

Jason Davis

It's all thanks to renewed interest from NASA and a private effort to scan the skies using an array of 64 radio telescopes.

Jason Davis

The Planetary Society has supported SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, practically since our founding in 1980. Learn the past, present, and future of SETI.

Jason Wright

One of the reasons SETI is hard is that we don’t know exactly what we are looking for, and part of that difficulty is that we still aren’t sure of who we are. An astronomer and an anthropologist team up to explore how cultural myopia shape what we can find in the cosmos.

Franck Marchis

Several readers have contacted me recently about reports that a group of international astronomers have detected a strong signal coming from a distant star that could be a sign of a high-technology civilization. Here’s my reaction: it’s interesting, but it’s definitely not the sign of an alien civilization—at least not yet.

Bruce Betts

The Planetary Society sponsored all-sky optical SETI search at Harvard University went off the rails, telescope roof rails that is, but it is back on track and hunting the sky for ET.

Casey Dreier

Cosmos returns in fine form in its penultimate episode. Sagan explores the historical and scientific precedents for the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI) and our human desires to not be alone in the universe.

Mat Kaplan

An update on the Planetary Society's improved Optical SETI search, with Harvard's Paul Horowitz and Curtis Mead.

Casey Dreier

In episode 2 we switch from cosmos to microcosm and discover how we are connected to all living things. Is Sagan too authoritative in this episode? Plus, a major error in one of the stories.