Skip to main content
Back to Show
PBS Space Time

How Will We (Most Likely) Discover Alien Life?

Season 9 Episode 29

The first discovery of extraterrestrial life will almost certainly NOT be when it visits us, nor when we visit it. It’ll be in the excruciatingly faint changes in the color of alien sunsets glimpsed hundreds of light years away. Today we’re going to talk about the first such hint, why it's probably not aliens, and why there’s a tiny chance that it still might not not be aliens.

Support Provided By
Season
Can the Universe Remember? Exploring Gravitational Memory
11:43
Gravitational tsunamis exist and we’re on the verge of being able to detect them.
How Can Humanity Become a Kardashev Type 1 Civilization?
18:40
Will we ever become a Kardeshev Type-1 civilization and how can we get there?
Do Neutron Stars Shine In Dark Matter?
14:05
New data is telling us that Neutron stars may make one of the most popular dark matter candidates.
What If the Cosmological Constant Is Not Constant?
15:14
Is Dark Energy Getting Weaker?
What If The Universe Did Not Start With The Big Bang?
16:08
Here’s the story we like to tell about the beginning of the universe.
The New Physics of Black Hole Star Capture | Extreme Tidal Disruption Events
17:44
We’ve never seen a TDE in the Milky Way, but we’ve seen them in distant galaxies.
Can We Test Quantum Gravity?
16:51
Let’s talk about quantum gravity experiments that can be done here on Earth!
Is Gravity RANDOM Not Quantum?
19:25
What if gravity isn’t weirdly quantum at all, but rather … just a bit messy?
Can We Create New Elements Beyond the Periodic Table
17:02
Have we reached the end of the line of discoverable elements?
Do Black Holes Have to Be Black?
15:32
Can we change the color of a black hole?
Was Penrose Right? New Evidence For Quantum Effects In The Brain
18:26
Learn about Nobel laureate Roger Penrose's idea of how consciousness is caused by quantum processes.
How To Detect Faster Than Light Travel
16:28
Faster than light travel may produce gravitational waves that we could see here on Earth.
Active loading indicator