Hello? Is Anyone out There? David Bordenave

Hello? Is anyone out there? David Bordenave

to the observable universe with the development of the first dedicated radio telescopes. This offered exciting new prospects for the search for extra-terrestrial life or SETI as scientists began to theorize that microwaves (specifically the 21 cm hydrogen line) would be ideal for interstellar communications, being a natural standard due to it being the radio signature of cold

The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field contains 5,500 neutral hydrogen gas [1]. galaxies, each made of billions of stars that are likely The first real SETI experiment to have companion planets as well. There seems to be occurred in 1960, conducted by Frank Drake, no shortage of potential habitable worlds in the the same astronomer who hypothesized the Universe. (Source: NASA) Drake equation (a mathematical expression

for the probability of intelligent life to exist “Are we alone in the universe?” A in the universe). “Project Ozma” it was question likely as old as humanity itself, yet called, using the 85ft Green Bank telescope it remains unresolved to this day. With the in West Virginia to observe a pair of stars in arrival of radio during the end of the 19th the radio band around the 21cm. Nothing century both Nikolai Tesla and Guglielmo interesting was detected, although it served as Marconi, the pioneers of radio technology, a proof-of-concept that such searches are believed extraterrestrial life could be detected scientifically feasible, and its systematic through radio emissions. Although, most procedure setting the way for future experiments that followed trying to detect experiments [2]. The decades that followed ‘Martians’ and other extra-terrestrials would witness the expansion of SETI resulted in little success, the search programs, with many proponents from continued. By the mid-20th century, NASA, national labs, and universities astronomers were able to open a new window conducting studies as well as guaranteeing of intelligence [4]. The survey will have funding. On Nov 20, 1984 the SETI Institute access to nearly a quarter of the total non-profit research organization was observation time for the next 5 years for the founded, by NASA’s Chief of Life Science Australian Parks telescope, as well as the new John Billingham and Bernard Oliver VP and Green Bank telescope in West Virginia. Director of Research at Hewlett-Packard. Additionally, the Automated Planet Finder The United States now had a dedicated effort Telescope at Lick Observatory will perform for the search for extra-terrestrial an optical survey, searching for laser intelligence. transmissions. The scope of the survey is also It would take a whole book to fully unprecedented, being both 10 times more in document the history of the SETI Institute coverage of the sky as well as 50 times more along with the many projects it has sensitive in comparison to previous SETI undertaken, and therefore this will only be a experiments. brief overview of recent troubles, and occurrences. A little over 20 years ago, SETI was defunded as Congress approved a spending bill lead by Senator Richard Bryan, citing the project to be a waste of taxpayers’ money [3]. SETI has continued to survive nonetheless, although now reliant on private funding. Among the private investors are The 100-m Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia Microsoft’s Paul Allen who funded the initial part of project Breakthrough Listen. (Source: NRAO) Allen Telescope Array back in 2001, and in From the humble beginning of project August of 2015 Yuri Milner, a Russian Ozma more than 50 years ago to investor, pledged $100-million to fund their Breakthrough Listen, SETI seems to be here research specifically for the Breakthrough to stay. The next decade of funding will Listen project. provide our best chances to date for making Likely the most ambitious effort to contact with our possible celestial neighbors. date, Breakthrough Listen will survey the 1 However, only time will tell if we are not million closest stars, the whole galactic disk, alone in the universe. as well as the nearest 100 galaxies for signs [2] www.seti-inst.edu/seti- Sources Cited institute/project/details/early-seti-project- ozma-arecibo-message

[1] www.coseti.org/morris_0.htm [3] www.thespacereview.com/article/2807/1 [4] www.breakthroughinitiatives.org/News/1