SETI Institute in the News 2025: June Roundup

Citizen Scientists Help Discover 8,000 New Eclipsing Binaries

What happens when astronomers join forces with nearly 1,800 volunteers and AI? A massive leap in our understanding of the stars. That’s exactly what unfolded in a project led by Dr. Veselin Kostov of the SETI Institute and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Working with data from NASA’s TESS mission, the team, powered by a blend of AI and public collaboration, identified 10,001 eclipsing binary systems, nearly 8,000 of which were previously unknown. Binary systems are stellar pairs that orbit each other and occasionally eclipse, revealing themselves through subtle dips in brightness.

This project highlights the power of human insight combined with machine learning, and hints at what’s next: using the same data to search for exoplanets hidden among the stars.

Read the full article by Universe Today here: Citizen Scientists Help Discover 8,000 New Eclipsing Binaries

Brittany Nelson’s Interplanetary Photographs Evoke Loneliness and Longing

Brittany Nelson’s 2024 exhibit I Can’t Make You Love Me at PATRON Gallery in Chicago infused space exploration with emotion and queer identity. Drawing from science fiction archives, early photography, and NASA images, Nelson reimagined the Mars rover Opportunity as a “lesbian icon” — a symbol of isolation and longing. Her use of the bromoil process softened Opportunity’s transmissions into intimate, painterly pieces, subverting the notion of space as solely scientific. During her SETI Institute residency, Nelson expanded this emotional lens to telescope arrays, imbuing them with the intimacy of past lovers. Her work reframes space machinery as conduits for connection, vulnerability, and memory. With upcoming exhibitions, including one at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center, Nelson continues to portray the cosmos as a landscape of identity, intimacy, and queer imagination, urging viewers to see space not just as a scientific frontier, but as a realm of vulnerability and connection.

Read the full article by ARTnews: Brittany Nelson’s Interplanetary Photographs Evoke Loneliness and Longing

Humpback Whales Are Blowing ‘Bubble Rings’ at Boats. Are They Trying to Communicate?

Humpback whales are famous for their songs and bubble nets. Now, a new study led by UC Davis and the SETI Institute reveals an even stranger behavior: blowing underwater bubble rings that resemble smoke rings. Observed across multiple oceans, these rings appear deliberate— some whales swam through or “spy-hopped” into them, suggesting intentional, possibly communicative actions. Researchers documented 39 rings across 12 events involving 11 whales. Dr. Fred Sharpe speculates these bubbles might even be symbolic, perhaps directed at humans. Drawing on their experience decoding alien signals, SETI scientists bring a unique lens to this Earth-bound mystery. While more data is needed, the findings hint at a new dimension of whale intelligence, one that challenges our understanding of non-human communication. Like signals from space, these bubbles invite us to ask: what if someone is trying to talk to us, and we just haven’t learned how to listen yet?

Read the full article in Scientific American: Humpback Whales Are Blowing ‘Bubble Rings’ at Boats. Are They Trying to Communicate?

The Perfect Astronaut Is Changing

As humanity eyes Mars, the focus shifts from just getting there to who should go. Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute and Mars Institute, drawing from decades of research on Devon Island (a Mars analog site), suggests the ideal astronaut isn't just a test pilot. Future crews need to be adaptable, inventive, and resilient — more explorers than engineers. They'll build, fix, lead, and survive with minimal help. NASA is recognizing this, looking at candidates from extreme environments. The SETI Institute, while searching for alien life, is also helping define the human qualities essential for our next giant leap.

Read more of this on The Atlantic: The Perfect Astronaut Is Changing

The Galactic Center Struggles to Form Massive Stars

At the Milky Way’s core, dense gas clouds known as Giant H II regions should be bustling with massive star formation,but something’s off. A new study led by SETI Institute researcher Dr. James De Buizer, using data from NASA’s retired SOFIA observatory, finds that these stellar nurseries are unusually quiet. In regions like Sgr B1, B2, and C, the expected flood of giant stars is a trickle, with two regions possibly ionized by unrelated, older stars. Despite harboring young stellar objects, the formation of high-mass stars is unexpectedly low. Researchers suspect that extreme conditions, like intense gravity and radiation near the galaxy’s supermassive black hole, are stifling stellar growth. Even more intriguing, Sgr B1 and C may not be true Giant H II regions at all, but instead failed or transitional forms. The findings raise new questions about how stars form in the galaxy’s most chaotic neighborhoods, and why, sometimes, they don’t.

Read the full article by ARTnews: Brittany Nelson’s Interplanetary Photographs Evoke Loneliness and Longing