SETI
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From a news story by
CNN San Francisco Reporter Don Knapp
April 20, 2000
Scientists are finding a
new use for satellite dishes. They want to tie them together electronically
so they can listen to radio signals from outer space. Their hope is
to make contact with alien life forms.
Astronomers from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI
and UC Berkeley are working together. They will use satellite dishes
to make one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. This telescope
is being built in northern California in a remote area. The radio telescope
is so big that it will be located on two and half acres. SETI and Berkeley
will spend twenty-five million dollars on the project. It should be
finished in 2004.
A SETI researcher, Dr. Jill Tarter is excited about the telescope. If
she points a beam at the sky, she will see one star. If she points a
powerful telescopic beam that collects energy, she will view up to a
dozen stars. Tarter and others have wondered for years whether there
was life in outer space.
Dr. Leo Blitz is a radio astronomer at UC Berkeley. He is helping produce
one of the world’s largest radio telescopes. It will be built out
of hundreds of modified satellite dishes. This huge telescope will produce
signals from communication satellites but these are not what the astronomers
are seeking. Instead, they are hunting for alien civilization signals
buried amongst all the other television channels.
Additional notes:
The telescope being built by SETI and Berkeley scientists is a one hectare
telescope. One hectare is equal to 2.47 acres or 10,000 square meters.
Once this telescope is finished, it will be the largest one dedicated
to SETI and one of the world’s biggest radio telescopes. This telescope
will be expandable, at not too great an expense, by adding new satellite
dishes. Once the hectare telescope is functioning, a search of 1,000
stars will begin, enlarge to 100,00 stars and finally, to one million
stars. There are about 400 billion stars in the Milky.
SETI sites to visit:
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