A woman wearing a backpack and carrying a hard briefcase with a NASA logo on it walks across the lava fields of Mauna Loa, Hawaii

OUR
ALIEN
EARTH

A NASA+ Original Series

RELEASED AUG 26, 2024

50K+

Views on NASA+ in 1st week

7M+

Views on latest trailer

Origin Story

Finding the limits of life in the world's most extreme places

How did life on Earth come to be? Are we alone in the Universe? How do we search for life beyond our home planet?

NASA scientists seek to answer these questions by journeying out of their labs and into the field, exploring the most extreme environments in the world, to learn about the limits of life, and test technologies that will help us detect life on planets beyond our own. Our Alien Earth is a documentary series that follows these expeditions to showcase just how alien-like our home can be.

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An aerial shot of a green, off-road jeep drives through a flooded plain, sending water into the air as it drives across an Icelandic landscape.
Dr. Amanda Stockton, leader of an expedition to Iceland, drives a landcruiser through a flooded plain as they leave their field site.
NASA/Mike Toillion
Episode 3 trailer

The Undersea Volcanoes of Santorini, Greece

Dive alongside Dr. Richard Camilli and his team as they explore the undersea volcanoes off of the coast of Santorini, Greece. Testing a suite of autonomous underwater vehicles, the team hopes to imbue their robotic explorers with the same scientific reasoning of a human astrobiologist, helping us characterize alien oceans and remotely search for signs of life on distant ocean worlds.

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NASA's search for life begins at home.

MIKE TOILLION

MIKE TOILLION

Filmmaker, Our Alien Earth

The Making of Episode 3

Follow the first-hand account of Mike Toillion's journey as he embarks on a voyage off the coast of Santorini, Greece, to accompany Dr. Richard Camilli as he and his team deploy a fleet of vehicles to explore undersea volcanoes at the bottom of the Aegean Sea.

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On the deck of a ship, a large A-frame style crane is lifting a submersible research vehicle into the air, as crew members hold taglines connecting to the vehicle, preparing to deploy it into the ocean.

Social Media Campaign

Our Alien Earth: Greece Trailer

Since debuting on Aug. 26, the trailer for episode 3 has garnered over 7 million views across YouTube, Facebook, X, and Instagram and over 200 thousand engagements with audiences online.

Teaser Video

Shot on location at the summit of Mount Blue Sky at 14,265'!

Social media stats for Our Alien Earth: Greece trailer on NASA's Instagram account. Stats include 6.475 million plays, 213 thousand likes, 1,750 shares, and 734 comments.
Social media stats for the Our Alien Earth: Greece trailer on NASA's Instagram account, as of October 21, 2024.
NASA/Mike Toillion

Mike Toillion

Mike joined the NASA Astrobiology Program in 2012, and has been sharing stories about the search for life ever since. He's created dozens of short films and video series, including Ask an Astrobiologist, the Early Career Spotlight Series, the Australian Outback & the Search for Life, and Exploring Alien Worlds with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

When not traveling the world with NASA scientists, you can find Mike in Boulder, CO, hiking the Rocky Mountains with his English Bulldog, Mochi.

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Meet the Filmmaker

The filmmaker of Our Alien Earth, Mike Toillion, holds up a peace sign while taking a selfie with members of the mission planning team.