The idea that signals might be clues to the existence of technically advanced societies is an old one. Radio is a great way to send information over the incredible distances between the stars it easily passes through the dust and gas that suffuse space, and it does so at the speed of light (about 20,000 times faster than our best rockets.) Let signals beamed via radio (or light) do the traveling. The idea is simple: Forget the rockets and bring on the photons. Warp drive is a lovely idea, but no more than that.Īnd while some people think that the extraterrestrials, with their advanced technology, may be able to come here, this is not a popular idea among most scientists.Ĭonsequently, most SETI these days eschews rockets, and relies on radio telescopes – massive antennas outfitted with highly sensitive and specialized receivers. But the enormous distances to the stars (even the nearest is 7,000 times farther than Pluto) means that we simply aren’t about to visit the aliens.
Such galactic galivanting is standard fare in movies and on television, a circumstance that has convinced many people that it’s something humans will be doing real soon now. Scientists long ago realized that we can’t find aliens by climbing into rockets and zipping off to other planetary systems. Lamentably, a year later a Senate initiative by congressman Richard Bryan of Nevada killed NASA’s SETI activities, and the Institute’s hunt for signals has been overwhelmingly dependent on funding from individuals and private organizations ever since.Ī brief description of the science of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, as well as the Institute’s observing programs, is given below. By the fall of 1992, that equipment was operational, and the “listening” began.
This project became known as the NASA SETI Program (later renamed the NASA Microwave Observing Project) which, at its peak in the early 1990s, was granted as much as $10 million annually to design and build equipment that could be used to pursue the hunt for signals. Tom Pierson (left) and Jill Tarter (right).
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