The SETI Observer

Dear SETI enthusiasts:

A SETI Detection in Our Lifetime?
The answer of course is unknown. But there is always a possibility! That is why all of us in the SETI field work so hard to conduct the experiments.

Will there be a detection in our lifetime? The SETI Institute’s Dr. Seth Shostak presented a tantalizing analysis of this question in a recent public lecture here in the Silicon Valley. He points out that the technology required for the task is only now getting to the point where a reasonable number of stars are being surveyed at a reasonable sensitivity. It’s entirely conceivable, he argues, that by the year 2015, using the capabilities of the new Allen Telescope Array, we will have surveyed some 100,000 stars with impressive sensitivity. By the year 2025, that number will reach into the millions. Depending upon how many transmitting civilizations you think might exist in our Galaxy, these samples are sufficiently large to make a detection likely.

In another area of SETI research, our colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley will use the enormous Arecibo telescope for 24 hours spread over three days next week to investigate up to 150 of the most promising seti@home signals. Project SERENDIP, which collects the data for seti@home, has received much support from the SETI Institute over the years. From its earliest days when Jill Tarter helped program the first SERENDIP computer, to the many years of financial support we provided for ongoing SERENDIP observations at Arecibo, we have followed the efforts of Dan Werthimer and his team. We are excited for them as they reach this important milestone of following up on the best candidate signals from the seti@home project.

Our own Project Phoenix team returns to Arecibo next month for 14 days of observations, and we stand ready to turn our enormously powerful systems to the task of assisting Dan should any signal prove worthy of such follow-up. The SETI Institute’s real-time observing capabilities, combined with the differential Doppler capability provided by our second system at Jodrell Bank, would provide just the right confirmation tool.

SETI is one of the crown jewels in the very exciting field of astrobiology. Beyond the ever-expanding search for an extraterrestrial signal, the Institute houses over thirty diverse astrobiology projects in our multidisciplinary Center for the Study of Life in the Universe. I invite you now to learn more about our work as you follow the links in the SETI Observer.

Thomas Pierson
CEO, SETI Institute

Be one of the first five to answer the following question correctly and get a cool SETI Institute t-shirt. We'll post the answer in next month's e-newsletter. Choose the phrase that best completes this statement and send your answer to newsletter@seti.org.

What point does Rocco Mancinelli make about the element Nitrogen in “Voices?”

1. Nitrogen-loving bacteria can be found in the salt crusts of evaporation pools where he collects halophiles.
2. Nitrogen is far less important to living systems than carbon, but is interesting because it’s current abundance on Mars may indicate that life originated there.
3. The Nitrogen cycle is of equal importance to both the spin and rinse cycles.
4. In a world without Nitrogen you could have candy, but no creatures to eat the candy.

In the last SETI Observer, we asked you to pick the letter that does not correctly complete this sentence:

In “Voices,” Dr. Jill Tarter

1. states that SETI and Life in the Universe science ponder exactly the same question.
2. defines SETI as that branch of astrobiology that uses the deliberate actions of the inhabitants to detect habitable worlds.
3. discusses the extremely important role imagination plays in designing SETI radio searches.
4. explains that she became a radio astronomer in order to do SETI.

The correct answer is "C"