From Radio Waves to Lava Flows: REU Students Explore Life in Extreme Places

Each summer, the SETI Institute invites a select group of undergraduate students to participate in its Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Each student assists their scientist mentor on a research project, learning how to conduct, write about and present scientific findings. For the summer of 2025, the 19th year of the program at the SETI Institute, 12 students joined the program to work on projects that included exploring caves and pits on Mars, using the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA) to search for signs of extraterrestrial technology, vetting exoplanet candidates, hunting for bolide clusters and more.

As part of the program, students participate in several off-site field trips. In July, the students spent a week at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO), home to the ATA and Lassen Volcanic National Park, bridging deep-space research and hands-on terrestrial analog research.

At the ATA, Dr. Sofia Sheikh and research assistant Joel Earwicker delivered a mini bootcamp to familiarize the students with ATA operations and conduct observations. Some of the highlights included using Doppler shifts to calculate the orbital motion of Mars-based spacecraft, tracing neutral hydrogen to map the spiral arms of the Milky Way and trying to observe the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.

At Lassen, Dr. Rosalba Bonaccorsi led the students as they hiked up a cinder cone, explored ancient lava tubes, and traversed hydrothermal areas, drawing connections between Earth's extreme environments and the potential habitability of other planets.

Whether they were standing in the shadow of the ATA's radio telescope dishes or trekking across hardened lava, the students asked with the same questions SETI Institute researchers think about every day: What could life look like across the universe? How will we know where to look for it? How will we recognize it if we find it?

After their time at the ATA and in the field, the students gained new skills and insights, as well as a renewed curiosity about their home planet and worlds beyond Earth.