• In TIME’s end-of-the-year “New Space Discoveries” special, the magazine picked “The 25 Most Influential People in Space” — from telescope innovators to planet hunters. Of those included in the list, we couldn’t help but notice that five had given TED Talks. Below, check out what each had to say on the TED stage.

1. Andrea Ghez on “the hunt for a supermassive black hole”

2. Jill Tarter sounds a “call to join the SETI search”

3. Brian Greene “makes sense of string theory” and says that “maybe this universe isn’t our only universe”

4. Martin Rees asks if “this is our final century”

5. Carolyn Porco says “Saturn could harbor moon life” and takes us there in “This is Saturn”

Read TIME’s full slate of space innovators >>