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K2-18b SETI Silence, AI Finds 118 Planets & LIGO's Sharpest Signal
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Radio telescopes targeted K2-18b and heard nothing — but that null result just proved SETI's most sensitive multi-telescope method yet works at scale. Plus: AI uncovers 118 hidden exoplanets, TESS hits 1,000 confirmed worlds, and a landmark gravitational wave validates Hawking's area theorem.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
We pointed two of the world's most powerful radio telescopes at one of the most promising planets we know of, and we heard nothing. That's not a failure.
On the exoplanet side, an AI system called RAVEN, built by the University of Warwick, just validated a hundred and eighteen new planets from TESS data. These were planets that traditional methods missed.
That connects directly to a milestone TESS crossed this week: one thousand confirmed exoplanet discoveries. The total exoplanet archive now sits at six thousand four hundred and forty-five confirmed worlds.
Elsewhere, the clearest gravitational wave signal LIGO has ever captured, from a black hole merger in January of this year, has provided the sharpest test yet of two foundational predictions. Hawking's area theorem, which holds that a black hole's event horizon can never shrink, holds up.
NASA also formalized its next round of commercial technology partnerships, selecting thirty-seven companies to develop forty-one projects through its ACO program. The focus is practical: modular power systems for surviving lunar nights, dust-protective covers, wireless power transfer.
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