The documentary short "Deep Sky" takes viewers on a breathtaking journey through space and time, showcasing stunning imagery captured by NASA's Webb Telescope on the giant IMAX® screen. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn and narrated by Michelle Williams, the film delves into the monumental effort behind the telescope's construction and launch, set to orbit a million miles from Earth. As it explores never-before-seen cosmic landscapes and newly discovered exoplanets, "Deep Sky" prompts timeless questions about our origins and the vastness of the universe. With Kahn's track record of award-winning documentaries, including "The Hunt for Planet B" and "My Architect," "Deep Sky" promises to immerse audiences in the beauty and mystery of space in a truly unforgettable cinematic experience.

Join communications specialist Beth Johnson in a special conversation with director Nathaniel Kahn about the telescope, the filmmaking process, and how we share science with the world.

A deeply eroded giant volcano, active from ancient through recent times and with possible remnants of glacier ice near its base, had been hiding near Mars’ equator in plain sight. Its discovery points to an exciting new place to search for life, and a potential destination for future robotic and human exploration.

“We were examining the geology of an area where we had found the remains of a glacier last year when we realized we were inside a huge and deeply eroded volcano,” said Dr. Pascal Lee, planetary scientist with the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute based at NASA Ames Research Center, and the lead author of the study announced at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in The Woodlands, Texas. Sourabh Shubham, a graduate student in the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland, is co-author of the discovery.

Join Dr. Lee as he talks with communications specialist Beth Johnson about the recent discovery and its potential impact on the search for life beyond Earth. (Recorded 11 April 2024.)

Press release: https://www.seti.org/press-release/giant-volcano-discovered-mars

A potential future space mission known as the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) could study terrestrial worlds in their stars' habitable zones (where water can be liquid) using spectral emissions in the mid-infrared. With only one known example of a world with life - Earth - scientists recently examined whether or not such a mission could determine if a planet was habitable. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, the results of a recent study concluded that yes, LIFE could find "signatures of crucial atmospheric species and [detect] the planet's temperate climate as well as surface conditions allowing for liquid water."

Co-author Björn S. Konrad joins senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis from ETH Zurich for an engaging SETI Live on how they used remote sensing data to draw their conclusions and what the results mean for the search for life beyond Earth. (Recorded 4 April 2024.)

Press release: https://www.phys.ethz.ch/news-and-events/d-phys-news/2024/02/if-earth-were-an-exoplanet.html

Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad198b