A video worth knowing

Cleo Abram explores alien hunting with a Venus cloud catcher

Astrophysicist Sara Seager brings working ideas and prototype hardware to a conversation about finding life, from neighboring clouds to distant planets.

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Cleo Abram Story of October 24, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? 1,974,421 views so far, and here is what is inside it.

The Most Likely Place to Find Aliens

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3:08A planet can reveal itself by dimming its star, making the star wobble, or appearing in direct images.
8:14Starlight passing through a planet's atmosphere can reveal gases through the wavelengths they absorb.
12:37Starshade would block a star's glare so a telescope could distinguish the much fainter planet nearby.
22:12Andy Weir asks whether Earth's excess heat is detectable from space; Seager says current capabilities cannot detect it.
29:56Seager shows a Venus entry probe model and a prototype cloud catcher for collecting atmospheric droplets.
32:18Laboratory tests found peptide nucleic acid remained stable in concentrated sulfuric acid, informing research into possible Venus-cloud chemistry.

Sara Seager brings something more concrete than an alien theory to her conversation with Cleo Abram: a model of a Venus entry probe and a prototype designed to catch cloud droplets.

That hardware gives "The Most Likely Place to Find Aliens" its most intriguing turn. The search need not begin with a message from another civilization. It could begin with chemistry in the atmosphere of our planetary neighbor.

The interview, watched nearly two million times in its first week, builds toward that possibility by explaining how scientists study worlds they cannot visit. When a planet passes in front of its star, some starlight travels through its atmosphere. Different gases absorb different wavelengths, giving researchers clues to what the air contains.

Seeing an Earth-like planet directly presents another problem: its star overwhelms its faint light. Seager demonstrates the proposed Starshade, an enormous flower-shaped screen intended to block the starlight so a telescope can pick out the planet beside it. Abram gets both a scale model and a full-size petal prototype to examine.

Venus brings the conversation closer to home. Its surface is fiercely hostile, but parts of its cloud layer have comparatively temperate conditions. The catch is sulfuric acid. Seager describes laboratory tests in which peptide nucleic acid, an alternative to DNA, remained stable in concentrated sulfuric acid, and explains the Morning Star missions' plans to investigate those clouds. That is a reason to explore, not a discovery of life.

The title doesn't resolve into a single confirmed best address for aliens. Instead, Abram and Seager lay out different searches, including atmospheric gases and traces of technology. Author Andy Weir even contributes a question about whether distant observers could detect Earth's excess heat. Seager's answer: not with our present capabilities.

The episode also includes a sponsored pet-food segment featuring Abram's dog Thor. For the scientific hardware, the Venus probe model appears around the half-hour mark, when the search becomes a question of what a small spacecraft could actually collect.

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What viewers say

A huge shout-out to the graphics and animation team - the illustrations really make it easier to understand the concepts Dr. Seager was describing!
@PeggyKTCSee it on YouTube
The universe is so ridiculously big that the real question isn't just whether aliens exist, but whether we'll ever be able to find each other
@RawatSanjay-jc3pwSee it on YouTube
As a venusian, I feel very unseen by this modern society.
@JonathanBonduSee it on YouTube

2 more comments

So much to unpack here, but the most relevant part for me is Sarah Seager. Never heard of her, and that's a problem, considering how crucial she is for today's astronomy. Great work to put her up there and give her more recognition!
@mariusg8824See it on YouTube
Cleo’s heartfelt expression of gratitude for Dr. Seager’s work at the end was very impactful. It was very compelling and inspiring to watch these two incredibly smart women, both leaders in their domains, engaging in a deep, intellectual conversation about what is possibly the biggest unanswered question remaining in science. Thank you both for making this conversation happen.
@MattSidorSee it on YouTube

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The facts

Channel: Cleo Abram
Subscribers: 8,900,000 ▲ 30,000 this week
Channel views, last 7 days: 28,181,039
Channel views, pace per day: 2,281,852 (on a normal day: 4,041,542)
Video published: October 17, 2026
Video views so far: 1,974,421 (7 days online)
Video views, pace per day: 87,364 (on a normal day: 443,294)

The numbers

The interview has reached nearly two million views in its first week. Its viewing totals are ordinary for Abram's channel; the substance of the conversation is the draw here.

subscribers

8,900,000

▲ 30,000 in the last 7 days

total views

3,320,496,853

views per day

2,281,852

typical day: 4,041,542

the video

views

1,974,421

likes