Societal Issues Archives

Astrobiology (general), Intelligence & Language, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues

Astrobiology On Steroids

by Keith CowingFebruary 19, 2026February 19, 2026

Well … it would seem that NASA will be paying more attention to Astrobiology now.

Results assuming undetected contacts with technoemissions over the past 65 yr. (a) Minimum number nmin of undetected past contacts required to achieve a present-day detectability of at least 95%, as a function of the search radius R. The thin black line shows the number of habitable planets Np as a function of R calculated from Np = 1010∫ drρdisk(r)θ(R − d), where d is the distance from Earth. The gray region marks where n > Np. (b) Average emitter longevity vs. R for selected n/Np values. (c) Upper and lower bounds on the expected number of present-day detections, 〈k〉, computed from Equation (15) for detectabilities P = 95 %, 99%, and 99.9%. For each P, all possible 〈k〉 values lie within the corresponding colored areas. -- The Astronomical Journal

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues

If Alien Signals Reached Earth, Why Haven’t We Seen Them?

by Keith CowingFebruary 17, 2026February 17, 2026

Swimming sperm whales. Credit Patrick Dykstra

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Intelligence & Language, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

SETI/CETI Tricorder Tech: Tapping Into Whale Talk

by Keith CowingDecember 16, 2025December 16, 2025

Birdy X AbGradCon ISSUE 138.5 special edition of Birdy Magazine for 2025's AbGradCon (Astrobiology Graduate Convention) with support by NASA.

Astrobiology (general), Career Opportunities, Education and Outreach, NASA Astrobiology Program, Science Fiction, Societal Issues

Birdy X AbGradCon 2025

by Keith CowingNovember 22, 2025November 22, 2025

Astrobiology (general), Astronomy & Telescopes, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, Science Fiction, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues

SETI Post-Detection Protocols: Progress Towards A New Version

by Keith CowingOctober 17, 2025October 17, 2025

[L] akospapp42 asks "What if someone out there found the Voyager Golden Record?" [R] My wife and I found it at the Air and Space Museum in DC

Astrobiology (general), Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, Science Fiction, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues

Reflections On The Voyager Record

by Keith CowingSeptember 27, 2025

Astrobiology (general), Conferences and Meetings, NASA Astrobiology Program, Societal Issues

Public Discussion: Astrobiology And Life, The Cosmos, The Human Story

by Keith CowingSeptember 16, 2025September 16, 2025

Astrobiology in the news -- Grok via Astrobiology.com

Astrobiology (general), Education and Outreach, NASA Astrobiology Program, Societal Issues

Communicating Astrobiology And The Search For Life Elsewhere

by Keith CowingJuly 31, 2025July 31, 2025

A diagram of the worldbuilding pipeline developed for this study. The pipeline begins with the global and technology factors that define each scenario from Table 5 and other assumptions common to all scenarios (gray). These inputs are given to the Claude LLM, which then generates a description of the world (blue). Additional narrative and descriptions of the planetary bodies are added manually (purple). This information provides the basis for a human needs assessment that determines the different uses of land on each planetary body (orange). These results are used to describe the physical technosphere and potentially detectable technosignatures (yellow), which provide recommendations for technosignature detection (green). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues, Stellar Cartography

Projections Of Earth’s Technosphere: Scenario Modeling, Worldbuilding, And Overview Of Remotely Detectable Technosignatures

by Keith CowingJuly 28, 2025July 28, 2025

VLA Photo: Credit: NSF/NSF NRAO/AUI/B.Foott

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues

SETI Post-Detection Futures: Directions for Technosignature Research and Readiness

by Keith CowingJuly 18, 2025January 14, 2026

Extreme Arabian Environments And Their Microbiomes: New Frontiers For Astrobiology And Biosignature Discovery

Astrobiology assesses the habitability of planetary bodies and the potential for extraterrestrial life. Analog environments on Earth serve as sites for studying extreme environments that resemble extraterrestrial conditions, aiding in validating life-detection methods, mission instrumentation, and biosignature preservation. These environments function as a source of model microorganisms and communities that define the habitability and biochemistry…

by Keith Cowing April 13, 2026April 13, 2026

From Early Earth to Enceladus – Mineral Electrochemistry Could Drive Organic Synthesis

At some point in Earth’s history, chemistry transitioned from abiotic organic synthesis—the building of more complicated organic molecules from smaller ones by nonbiological means—to biochemistry. Hydrothermal settings are compelling sites for the origins of this transition because they are natural chemical reactors. In this non-equilibrium setting; hot, reduced fluids continuously mix with cold, oxidized seawater…

by Keith Cowing April 13, 2026April 13, 2026

Chang’e Mission Samples Reveal How Exogenous Organic Matter Evolves On The Moon

Elements essential to life, such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, were “delivered” to the Earth and Moon during the early stages of the Solar System via asteroids and comets impacting their surfaces. These exogenous materials may have provided the chemical building blocks necessary for the origin and early evolution of life on Earth.…

by Keith Cowing April 13, 2026April 13, 2026