Our Boldest Effort to Answer our Oldest Question: The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

On Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023 at 7 pm (PST), Dr. Andrew Siemion (U of California, Berkeley & SETI Institute) will give a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture entitled:  

“Our Boldest Effort to Answer our Oldest Question: The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life Beyond Earth" 

in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, in Los Altos (see directions below) 

We ask that attendees be vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 and wear a mask while indoors at the event. Extra masks will be provided.  Thank you.

The recoding will be on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SVAstronomyLectures  The talk is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, now in its 23rd year. 

For centuries, humans have gazed at the night sky and wondered what is out there.  Over time, we have come to know many of the answers; how our own planet Earth and Sun came to be, how they dance in a sea of other stars hosting their own planetary systems, and how the structure of the universe has evolved on the grandest scales.  But one of our biggest questions remains unanswered: is anyone or anything out there staring back at us?  Today we are answering that question using the tools of astronomy, surveying other worlds for the tell-tale indicators of technology.  Dr. Siemion will describe the state-of-the-art in hunting for intelligent life in the cosmos and how the largest telescopes in the world are now being used to conduct searches of unprecedented scope and sensitivity. 

Dr. Andrew Siemion is the Bernard Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute and Director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center. His research interests include high energy time-variable celestial phenomena, astronomical instrumentation and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). He is the Principal Investigator for the $100 million Breakthrough: Listen program, the most sophisticated search yet for signs of technology among the stars. 

Foothill College is just off the El Monte Road exit from Freeway 280 in Los Altos.   

For directions and parking information, see: https://foothill.edu/parking/
For a campus map, to find the Smithwick Theater (Bldg. 1000), see: https://foothill.edu/map/  

The lecture is co-sponsored by: 

• The Foothill College Science, Tech, Engineering & Math Division 
• The SETI Institute 
• The Astronomical Society of the Pacific 
• The University of California Observatories (including Lick Observatory). 

Past lectures in the series can also be found on YouTube at: http://youtube.com/svastronomylectures and as audio podcasts at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1805595