A new comet, C/2022 E3 (ZTF), is making a rare visit to Earth, coming closer than it has in over 50,000 years. Stargazers around the world have admired its eerie green glow and bright tail of dust. Join SETI Institute Senior Planetary Astronomer, Dr. Franck Marchis, and Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Ariel Graykowski, as they discuss the significance of this comet and its impact on the search for life in space. Learn about comets and the night sky in this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Recorded live on 2 February 2023.

SETI Institute's Artist-in-Residence, Felipe Pérez Santiago, discusses the ambitious Earthling Project. Launched in 2020, the project collects songs from people around the world to create musical compositions representing humanity. These compositions will be sent into space with the help of the Arch Mission Foundation, a nonprofit preserving human knowledge for future generations. Tune in to hear from Santiago and SETI AIR Director Bettina Forget, and listen to the world sing in harmony on the Earthling Project - Songs for Outer Space.

Recorded live on stream 26 January 2023.

Using data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, researchers at the University of Montreal found evidence that two exoplanets orbiting a star 218 light-years away are “water worlds,” where water makes up a large fraction of the entire planet. These planets are unlike planets in our solar system -- they were previously believed to be rocky Earth-like planets but instead are really water worlds.

Listen to Franck Marchis in conversation with lead researcher Caroline Piaulet to learn about these new findings.

Press release: https://exoplanetes.umontreal.ca/en/universite-de-montreal-astronomers-find-that-two-exoplanets-may-be-mostly-water/

This episode was recorded live on 19 January 2023.

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SETI Live is a weekly production of the SETI Institute and is recorded live on stream with viewers on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Twitch. Guests include astronomers, planetary scientists, cosmologists, and more, working on current scientific research. Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity’s quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the Universe and to share that knowledge with the world.

We have to admit that 2022 was an impressive year for space science, what with JWST starting to collect science data and even releasing early results, the launch and return of the Artemis 1 mission, the DART mission, a NASA Juno flyby of Europa, and the end of the NASA InSight lander mission. And that was just NASA's part of the activity! China, Japan, and South Korea all launched missions, while commercial launches and space tourism continued to increase.

2023 is definitely shaping up to match. There are more potential mission launches for NASA, ESA, China, India, and Japan; a total solar eclipse; a sample return; more Juno flybys; and even a comet or two that can be seen with the unaided eye. Join SETI Institute senior scientist Franck Marchis and communications specialist Beth Johnson as they take a look at what's in store for the new year.

Recorded live 4 January 2023.