Tag: SETI
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SETI Institute gives Drake Award to Univ. of Washington astrobiologist Vikki Meadows
University of Washington astrobiologist Victoria Meadows holds up a rock sample. (UW Photo) University of Washington astrobiologist Victoria Meadows has become the first woman to receive the SETI Institute’s Frank Drake Award, named after a pioneer in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Meadows directs UW’s graduate program in astrobiology and is the principal investigator for…
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How scientists are expanding the spectrum for SETI and the search for alien life
This map from the University of Puerto Rico’s Planetary Habitability Laboratory shows the known planetary systems within about 100 light-years from Earth, plotted on a logarithmic scale. The systems with potentially habitable exoplanets are highlighted with red circles. (PHL @ UPR Arecibo) BERKELEY, Calif. — Twenty years after the movie “Contact” brought the search for…
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SETI scientists report radio silence from interstellar object but will keep listening
The Breakthrough Listen initiative uses the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. (NRAO Photo) News Brief: The scientists behind the Breakthrough Listen initiative say they haven’t detected any radio signals coming from a strange interstellar object known as ‘Oumuamua, but there are still more observations to be made and analyzed. About 90 trillion bytes of…
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Breakthrough Listen will check interstellar object just to make sure it’s not a starship
An artist’s conception shows what the interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua might look like. (ESO Illustration / M. Kornmesser) Is that cigar-shaped, fast-moving interstellar object a spaceship? Almost certainly not, but Breakthrough Listen will check just to make sure. The Breakthrough Listen campaign, which checks celestial targets for radio signals from intelligent civilizations, will turn the Green Bank…
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‘Sónar Calling’ campaign broadcasts music and messages to an alien super-Earth
The target of the “Sonar Calling” binary-coded radio transmission is a planet known as GJ273 b. (METI International Illustration / Danielle Futselaar) Scientists and artists have banded together to beam coded radio transmissions toward a star that has a potentially habitable planet, just 12.4 light-years from Earth. “Sónar Calling GJ273b” is the latest effort to communicate…
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Billionaire Yuri Milner discusses his plan to look for life on Saturn moon – and his Russian connections
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, at right, chats with The Economist’s Oliver Morton during the “New Space Age” conference at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) Russian billionaire Yuri Milner today laid out his vision to send the first privately funded interplanetary space mission to look for life at the Saturnian moon Enceladus —…
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Alien-hunting Breakthrough Listen project tracks strange series of 15 radio bursts
Intriguing radio signals have been picked up via the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. (NRAO Photo) Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million initiative aimed at stepping up the search for alien signals, says it’s picked up an intriguing series of 15 fast radio bursts emanating from a dwarf galaxy 3 billion light-years away. It’s way…
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Marijuana fans mix with space fans at The Goodship Company’s Seattle SETI salon
SETI astronomer Seth Shostak (far left) takes questions from the audience while The Goodship Company’s art director, Greg Lundgren, looks on. GeekWire’s Alan Boyle is the guy with his head down in the front row. (Goodship Photo / Ben Lindbloom) Is Seattle’s Goodship Higher Education Series about bringing together cannabis users? Or is it about deep…
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Far out, man! SETI astronomer will explain the search for aliens to potential potheads
SETI astronomer Seth Shostak has been seeking alien signals for more than two decades. (SETI Institute Photo) You don’t have to be stoned to appreciate SETI scientist Seth Shostak’s perspective on the search for extraterrestrials – but it wouldn’t hurt. That’s what the Goodship Higher Education Series is counting on when the SETI Institute’s senior astronomer…
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Spectral signals from alien civilizations? Fresh set of SETI claims stirs up criticism
The Breakthrough Listen project will use the Automated Planet Finder to observe a controversial sampling of stars. (Credit: Vogt et al. 2014 / UC-Berkeley / Lick Observatory) Two astronomers have generated a debate by claiming that they may have found the spectral signature of messages from an extraterrestrial civilization – but the debate is mostly…