Scientists have found the source of a strange form of communication in the ocean that they say could help them locate extraterrestrial life in space. Researchers from the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) revealed that large'smoke ring-like' bubbles coming from underwater were created by humpback whales, which researchers believe is their way of greeting nearby humans. It's the first time scientists have seen whales sending out these unique rings while interacting with people in the wild, and the SETI team said they show an intentional attempt to get the attention of humans - just like saying hello. Until now, the bubble rings have only been seen while humpbacks were gathering prey and when males were making a trail of bubble rings to attract a mate. Researchers said it's quite possible whales have been trying to communicate with people for years but the phenomenon hasn't been studied until now.

Scientists claim they have had the first one-on-one conversation with a whale. The team from the SETI Institute and the University of California'spoke' with a 38-year-old humpback whale, named Twain, off the coast of Alaska. They used an underwater microphone to send out whale calls, 'whup/throp' sounds, and received 36 responses that seemed like Twain was actively engaged in a communicative exchange. AI-powered algorithms analyzed the replies, revealing Twain may have shared a greeting call with the team on a boat in the Pacific Ocean. While speaking to a different species has never been done in this manner, researchers are using the experience to hopefully one day converse with extraterrestrial life.

Scientists say they have discovered a giant volcano hidden in plain sight on Mars. The volcano, temporarily named the Noctis, spans 280 miles wide and was discovered alongside a buried ice glacier to the east of Mars, near the red-planet's equator, scientists revealed at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in Texas on Wednesday. Scientists said the 29,600-foot-high volcano was active from ancient through recent times and with possible remnants of glacier ice near its base. They say its discovery points to an exciting new place to search for life and a potential destination for future robotic and human exploration. The findings were detailed in a new study by the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute based at NASA Ames Research Centre. Scientists have discovered a gigantic volcano on Mars that spans 280 miles wide and and nearly 30,000 feet high near the red-planet's equator, (NASA/USGS Mars globe.

A new study involving University of Oxford researchers has found that artificial intelligence could accelerate the search for extraterrestrial life by showing the most promising places to look. The findings have been published in Nature Astronomy. In the search for life beyond Earth, researchers have few opportunities to collect samples from Mars or elsewhere. This makes it critical that these missions target locations that have the best chance of harbouring life. In this new study, researchers demonstrated that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning methods can support this by identifying hidden patterns within geographical data that could indicate the presence of life.

When pondering the probability of discovering technologically advanced extraterrestrial life, the question that often arises is, "if they're out there, why haven't we found them yet?" And often, the response is that we have only searched a tiny portion of the galaxy. Further, algorithms developed decades ago for the earliest digital computers can be outdated and inefficient when applied to modern petabyte-scale datasets. Now, research published in Nature Astronomy and led by an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, Peter Ma, along with researchers from the SETI Institute, Breakthrough Listen and scientific research institutions around the world, has applied a deep learning technique to a previously studied dataset of nearby stars and uncovered eight previously unidentified signals of interest. "In total, we had searched through 150 TB of data of 820 nearby stars, on a dataset that had previously been searched through in 2017 by classical techniques but labeled as devoid of interesting signals," said Peter Ma, lead author.

The SETI Institute, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit that seeks to explore and explain the nature and origins of life in the universe, is gearing up to host the fifth iteration of its competitive, NASA-funded summer program, the Frontier Development Lab. FDL brings together a diverse cadre of researchers each year since its inception to rapidly leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced computing capabilities--all to ultimately help America's space agency accelerate its own research and discoveries. While SETI envelops the "search for extraterrestrial intelligence," its inside efforts touch a range of areas across space, science and beyond. But the 2020 program might run a little differently than those that came before. "Now, what's interesting is, we may--for the first time actually--undertake the program virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic," Bill Diamond, president and CEO of the SETI Institute, told Nextgov recently. "All indications are that this is going to be with us through at least the early part of the summer, and it may preclude the in-person working system that normally is characterized by the FDL program."

New technology is giving astronauts exploring distant worlds a helping hand. Scientists from NASA and the SETI Institute have developed a'smart glove' that lets astronauts control robots, specifically drones, through one-handed gestures. The innovation uses a micro-controller to read an array of sensors that capture even the smallest motion of the fingers and hands. The glove coincides with NASA's latest spacesuit design that aims to add more comfort and efficiency for astronauts as they explore the moon and Mars. Scientists from NASA and the SETI Institute have developed a'smart glove' that lets astronauts control robots, specifically drones, through one-handed gestures The smart glove is a prototype for a human-machine interface (HuMI) that would allow astronauts to wirelessly operate a wide array of robotic assets, including drones, via simple single-hand gestures.

A NASA Frontier Development Lab (FDL) team has shown that by using deep learning, it is possible to virtually monitor the Sun's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance, which is a key driver of space weather. The Sun is vital for survival, but solar flares, which typically occur a few times a year, have the potential to cause severe disruptions in space and on Earth. These disruptions can impact spacecraft, satellites and even systems here on Earth, including GPS navigation, radio communications and the power grid. Deep learning can help get more value out of our current ability to monitor the Sun by providing virtual instruments to supplement physical devices. This research will be published in Science Advances on October 2, 2019 ("A deep learning virtual instrument for monitoring solar extreme ultraviolet spectral irradiance").

How do you fix a satellite's instrument that's floating 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface? That's a question that NASA had to answer when it ran into problems with the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a satellite tasked with studying the Sun and the effects of solar activity on Earth. This is important for all sorts of reasons -- not least because solar storms can knock out GPS satellites, shut down electrical grids, and scramble communications. Unfortunately, one of the SDO's three instruments, responsible for measuring ultraviolet light, stopped working due to a fault. This data is essential to satellite operators.

An autonomous rover named Zoë, designed and built by Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, drilled into the soil of Chile's Atacama Desert in 2013 and discovered unusual, highly specialized microbes. The NASA-funded mission demonstrated how robots might someday find life on Mars. The astrobiology mission was led by the Robotics Institute and the SETI Institute to test technologies for searching for life underground. The microbial analyses of the soil samples recovered by Zoë were published Feb. 28 in the journal Frontiers of Microbiology. Zoë was equipped with a one-meter drill that recovered samples several times each day.