Lmst

🎭 Why do stories matter for post detection?

Films, novels, and games have been preparing our imaginations for contact for decades. They shape what people expect, fear, and hope for long before any real announcement.

The SETI Post Detection Hub is interested in how creative work can help societies explore possible futures, practice empathy, and question simple narratives about contact outcomes.

💬 Which story about contact has influenced you the most, and why?

Responsible Discovery in Astrobiology: Lessons from Four Controversial Claims
Daliah Raquel Bibas, Clément Vidal

https://astrobiology.com/2025/12/responsible-discovery-in-astrobiology-lessons-from-four-controversial-claims.html
#astrobiology

SETI Post-Detection Hub boosted:

Rubin Observatory and the Galaxies

Starting in late 2025, when it begins the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), Rubin will capture skies like these in more detail than ever before.

Credit: @VRubinObs / P.J. Assuncao Lago

https://noirlab.edu/public/images/MWpanov3-CC/

#Rubin #RubinObservatory #LSST #galaxies #MilkyWay #Galaxy #LMC #SMC #NOIRLab #astrodon #photography #astrophotography #nighphotography

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile sits beneath a night sky rich with cosmic detail. The Milky Way arcs overhead while the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds glow nearby.

We’re excited to embark on this project, and hope the results will provide new insights into public responses to disputed detection events, with crucial implications for science/risk communication in astrobiology, as well as for post-detection communication strategies and protocols.”

Research led by Andreas Schwarz

https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/en/universitaet/fakultaeten/fakultaet-wirtschaftswissenschaften-und-medien/profil/institute-und-fachgebiete/institut-fuer-medien-und-kommunikationswissenschaft/forschung/international-risk-crisis-and-science-communication-research-group/team/priv-doz-dr-habil-andreas-schwarz
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9033-9662 #ORCID
Handbook: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781394180844.ch1

#Astrodon #Uncertainty #RiskPerception #ScienceNarratives #MediaAnalysis #Discovery #SETI

The project includes cases such as exoplanet #K218b, phosphine on #Venus, Tabby's Star, #Oumuamua, and #3IATLAS. Each video is currently being coded in terms of risk and benefit narratives, sources, science actors and evaluations, and frames of (un)certainty.

The group is using computational methods to analyze thousands of user comments on public videos to investigate reactions to discovery in terms of sentiment and other aspects.

#PostDetection #SETI #SocialScience #ScienceCommunication #STS

Artist's impression showing the planet K2-18b. K2-18b is a super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life.

On the right side of the image, a huge blue planet fills nearly half the frame: swirling cloud layers cover the planet's surface that looks to be gaseous or ice-dominated.

In the lower left corner, a small orange star is surrounded by dark sky. Near the star, a much smaller planet appears as a dim, distant silhouette.

This artwork represents the K2-18 system, where K2-18b orbits a cool red dwarf star. University College London researchers used archive data from 2016 and 2017 captured by the NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and developed open-source algorithms to analyze the starlight filtered through K2-18b's atmosphere. The results revealed the molecular signature of water vapor, also indicating the presence of hydrogen and helium in the planet's atmosphere.

credits: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser
More info at the NASA site:
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/hubble/artists-impression-of-exoplanet-k2-18b

While no detections have been confirmed, several cases of claimed, disputed, or refuted detections have been documented, revealing potential public responses when a true positive is confirmed.

A group at Ilmenau University of Technology - Gehad Elshebiny, Shao-Ting Hou, Mehmet Karpuz, Mohsin Mushtaq, Saira Rasheed, Anjali Rawat and myself - are currently analyzing hundreds of YouTube videos about such detection claims with data scientist Anamaria Berea (George Mason University) & the @setihub.

From Andreas - “Although the likelihood of discovering simple (biosignatures) or intelligent (technosignatures) life in our galaxy is unknown, a true positive detection is expected to significantly impact society through amplification by social media & the news media.

Research in risk & science communication shows that risk perceptions and public representations of astrobiology/SETI play vital roles in how these events unfold in the public sphere.

#astrobiology #biosignatures #technosignatures

What scientific methods can approach questions of future discovery?

Hub member and risk-communication scholar Andreas Schwarz and students at Ilmenau University of Technology are analyzing YouTube content about post-detection claims with data scientist Anamaria Berea (George Mason University) and the Hub at St Andrews.

Learn more about the work of the International Risk, Crisis & Science Communication Research Group:

https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/en/universitaet/fakultaeten/fakultaet-wirtschaftswissenschaften-und-medien/profil/institute-und-fachgebiete/institut-fuer-medien-und-kommunikationswissenschaft/forschung/international-risk-crisis-and-science-communication-research-group #SETI #Risk #Communication #PostDetection #Discovery

❤️ Is emotion part of intelligence?

Emotion influences learning, memory, and decision-making, guiding how minds learn and respond to their surroundings.

If emotions help organisms navigate complex environments on Earth, could something similar appear wherever intelligence evolves? What would an intelligent mind without emotion be like?

🔎 What do you think? We'd love to hear your perspective!

#Intelligence #SETI #Interdisciplinary

🌿 Does intelligence depend on environment?

The conditions surrounding life, such as its atmosphere, chemistry, temperature, and terrain, profoundly shape how intelligence emerges and functions. Whether on Earth, in alien environments, or within digital systems, every setting offers unique constraints and possibilities for intelligence to arise.

💬 What environments do you think could give rise to forms of intelligence entirely unlike our own, and what might those minds be like?

🎨 Is intelligence tied to creativity?

Some argue that the ability to generate new ideas, imagine alternatives, or innovate solutions is a core feature of intelligence. Others see creativity as valuable, but not required for an entity to be considered intelligent.

💭 What's your take? Can intelligence exist without creativity, or is creativity inseparable from it?

#Intelligence #SETI #AI

SETI Post-Detection Hub boosted:

#ICYMI: Are we close to discovering life beyond Earth? Dr. Martin Dominik isn't certain, but he thinks we should be prepared to handle the consequences of finding that life. He spoke with Dr. Franck Marchis in this week's #SETILive. Watch the full interview: https://youtube.com/live/cULB0k2Cb7s

#space #science

🌍 How do you think the world would react if there was a confirmed discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence?

Would it spark global unity, scientific renaissance, or fear and skepticism? Would the impact last or slowly fade away? Would it change anything if the discovery was within our own Solar System?

👇 Reply and let us know your thoughts!

#seti #postdetection

What happens after we discover life beyond Earth?

Today Martin Dominik is speaking with the SETI Institute’s Franck Marchis about our paper on post-detection futures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cULB0k2Cb7s
Live in 3 hours 30 mins

#SETI #PostDetection #astronomy #astrobiology #technosignatures #space #science

Clearest sign so far

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/science/mars-rock-nasa-perserverance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.k08.hcA1.a6Frl3a9_TUN&smid=bs-share

#Mars #life

We (The Hub) have made it as part of an exhibit at the Natural History Museum "Could Life Exist Beyond Earth" - exhibition display just seen by one of my colleagues at the SETI Post-Detection Hub . The word is spreading. 👽

SETI Post-Detection Hub boosted:

"Gravitational wave detector LIGO spots fast-spinning ‘forbidden’ black holes that challenge physics models"

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02212-7 by @astrojonny discusses the #GW231123 and the potential of gravitational-wave astronomy

#Astrodon #Physics #Astronomy

SETI Post-Detection Hub boosted:

Sky & Telescope Magazine report on the proposed National Science Foundation budget's impact

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/shattering-nsf-budget-proposal-threatens-gravitational-wave-science/ by Hannah Richter

#Science #Astrodon

`“You wouldn’t expect people writing a budget request to be experts in gravitational waves,” says physicist Gabriela González (Louisiana State University), “but they were writing things without consulting experts. And that worries me.”
When asked for comment, an NSF spokesperson said via email that the budget “reflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment in which NSF prioritizes investments that can have the greatest national impact.”
The White House proposal is not the final say; Congress will have to write and pass its own budget for the agency, influenced by the President’s asks. But since LIGO receives all of its funding from the NSF, its leaders, including Giaime and Reitze, have already begun mocking up plans to abide by different levels of funding cuts. Above all, they are trying to keep both sites open — a stipulation that would require significant job losses across each facility.
“I can’t explain to my staff why this is being contemplated,” says Giaime, who fears that the loss of skilled laborers would take years to build back, even if funding were restored in the future. He also worries about the preservation of the science centers at each site, which provide STEM education to thousands of K-12 children in rural areas every year, some of whom have gone on to science careers. Researchers at institutions country-wide might also be impacted; more than half of U.S. states receive LIGO-related grants, says González.`

Hundreds of NASA employees and supporters have signed the #VoyagerDeclaration, formally expressing dissent against budget cuts and attacks on key NASA missions.

This action follows similar statements from #NIH and #EPA communities, voicing objection to the unlawful policies of the Trump administration.

https://www.standupforscience.net/nasa-voyager-declaration #StandUpForScience #Science #SpaceScience #NASA

SETI Post-Detection Hub boosted:

Science, researchers and research communities increasingly need to be resilient to threats and actual incursions relating to budget, academic freedom, safety in the public arena, availability of science databases and infrastructures and more. We created this framework to inspire communities in their resilience. It is quite generic, so needs to be customised to specific contexts and threats. #safeguardingresearch #defendresearch #resilience #academicfreedom @RShetty

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