Jill Tarter has spent a lifetime working on a question that resists answers: not whether we believe there is life beyond Earth, but the quest for undeniable proof.  Tarter explains […]

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Radio astronomy opened up the universe for scientists. They could map new elements across galaxies and also search for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.

Physicist Daniel Whiteson challenges the notion that all intelligent species would eventually uncover the same laws of nature. Do you agree?

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.

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“You don’t have to claim that they’re aliens to make these exciting.”…

Big Think spoke with astronomer David Kipping about technosignatures, "extragalactic SETI," and being a popular science communicator in the YouTube age.

Finding life beyond our Solar System requires understanding its host planet.

When we send messages to the stars, just what are we getting ourselves into?

In all the known Universe, Earth is the only planet known to have native life. What should guide us in expanding humanity beyond our world?

A conversation with an advanced alien species is likely to be simple and to take 1,000 years. It might also be dangerous.

Remembering Frank Drake, who transformed the search for alien life & extraterrestrial intelligence into a full-fledged scientific endeavor.

A new explanation for the Wow! signal suggests it was a chance detection of a furious flare crashing into a hydrogen cloud. But some researchers doubt that this idea has truly cracked the case

In 1974 we beamed a radio transmission into space that changed the way we think about our place in the cosmos

Odds are that we’re not truly alone in the cosmos. But practically speaking, we might as well be

Dimethyl sulfide is in the news after NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected relatively high levels of it in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18 b

On the 50th anniversary of the “Arecibo message,” we present a reflection on humankind’s first attempt to send a transmission to intelligent life in the cosmos.

Studying how extraterrestrials might communicate could help prepare for first contact and also hint at the point of language itself

The search for extraterrestrial life has periodically been turned upside down

For Lisa Kaltenegger and her generation of exoplanet astronomers, decades of planning have set the stage for an epochal detection.

Radio waves, longer and less energetic than visible light, give astronomers access to some of the most obscure physics in the cosmos.

Astronomers claim in a new paper that star motions should make it easy for civilizations to spread across the galaxy, but still we might find ourselves alone.

Searching for signs of life on faraway planets, astrobiologists must decide which telltale biosignature gases to target.

In November 1974, astronomers used the radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory to send a hello to the universe.

A true scientific view of if, where, and when extraterrestrial life exists is within our grasp thanks to biosignatures and technosignatures.

Since 1962, humanity has been sending messages into space with the intent to make contact with intelligent extraterrestrials. Are those efforts worth the risks?

SETI is no longer just a guessing game.

Step back from the AI maelstrom and explore Lem’s "Summa Technologiae" for a detached look at technology’s role in human evolution.