SETI is an abbreviation for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, the name of a scientific congress held in 1961. In 1984,
the SETI Institute was founded, with its activities supported by NASA. In 1994, NASA’s SETI activities were curtailed, and
the SETI Institute continued under private sponsorship with more than 100 scientists.
SETI scientists use the world’s most advanced “hearing aid” to listen for signals from other planets. The Institute has developed
many technologies for the task and is now building the Allen Telescope Array, in which several hundred parabolic antennas
are interconnected. It will be the most powerful and advanced radio telescope yet dedicated to searching for life on other
planets. Additionally, the SETI Institute has begun to search for signs of life in the form of infrared or visible light bursts
directed toward Earth from far-off planets.
Radio signals move at the speed of light, but distances are so enormous that even light from the closest stars takes a long
time to reach the Earth. Moreover, there are tens of millions of planets in our galaxy as well as even more numerous sources
of radio interference. In other words, searching for life literally is an astronomical task. Hitherto, SETI scientists have
not found a confirmed sign of life. But they haven’t given up. SETI now is the only project that is looking for intelligent
life on other planets.
Anyone can take part in the SETI search for life in the Universe. If you install SETI@home, a small program much like a screen-saver
on your PC, you can connect to the SETI data network. When your PC is on and you are not using it, its computing capacity
then will be used to help analyze signals from deep space.
SETI – listening for life
Ordinary radio broadcasts don’t stay on Earth. They radiate outward into space at the speed of light. So radio signals broadcast on other planets might also reach us. Therefore, SETI scientists listen for signs of life in remote parts of our galaxy.
