NASA KEPLER Scientists to Describe Hunt for Earth-Sized Planets

Mountain View, CA– The Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe is being established at the SETI Institute in Silicon Valley to sustain a long-term commitment for research into age-old questions such as, "Are we Alone?"

Date: 4/4/2007

Carl Sagan Center Formed to Study Life in the Universe

Mountain View, CA– The Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe is being established at the SETI Institute in Silicon Valley to sustain a long-term commitment for research into age-old questions such as, "Are we Alone?"

The SETI Institute is proud to be a significant part of the upcoming Astrobiology Science Conference 2006 . AbSciCon offers sessions across the broad range of astrobiology discipline   An astrobiology community Town Hall meeting will be held on March 28, 2006 from 1-2 p.m., at the Ronald Reagan Building, Amphitheater. This meeting is designed to be a forum for community members to comment on the proposed cuts and the implications to the field.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about the mysterious moon.

The SETI Institute’s weekly radio program about life on and beyond Earth, "Are We Alone?" will begin broadcast on Discovery Channel Radio in March. The show, a growing favorite with podcast listeners, now joins Discovery’s new radio network, a premier outlet for programs devoted to the coverage of science and technology.

NASA Ames Research Center Director G. Scott Hubbard, who steps down from that position today,has accepted a visiting scholar appointment in the Electrical Engineering Department. The appointment became effective Feb. 1, 2006.

G. Scott Hubbard, director of NASA Ames Research Center, located in California’s Silicon Valley, today announced his personal plans for the future. He has accepted a new assignment as holder of the Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., effective Feb. 15, 2006.

The Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Christopher Chyba as a Trustee.  Dr. Chyba is Professor of Astrophysics and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he co-directs the Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Dr. Chyba’s colleagues on the SETI Institute Board of Trustees include two Nobel Prize winners, four members of the National Academy of Sciences, two members of the National Academy of Engineering, and several current and former Fortune 500 business executives.

NASA's Deep Impact mission is about to smash into comet 9P/Tempel 1 to excavate a crater and probe the comet's internal structure.   It's possible, however, that the comet will break into fragments, creating a cloud of meteoroids. That, say astronomers, may not be unnatural.

“It may well be that there are far more habitable planets orbiting M
dwarfs than orbiting all other types of stars combined,” explained Frank
Drake, the Director of the SETI Institute’s Center for the Study of Life
in the Universe. The possibility of habitable planets around M stars is
all the more intriguing given the recent discovery of a planet around
Gliese 876, an M star located just 15 light years from Earth.

From February 24-26, 2005, twenty leading social scientists will gather in Santa Fe, New Mexico to share their latest research findings that examine altruism in a global context, as part of the 34^th annual conference of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research (SCCR).

SETI Institute scientist Dr. Nathalie Cabrol will be honored as one of the Wings Women of Discovery,  recognizing the contributions of women explorers who are pioneering discoveries on the frontiers of research and knowledge.

A planetary surface once thought as interesting as a cue ball reveals intriguing distinctive feature.

The SETI Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Jill Tarter was selected by the editors of TIME magazine as one of the world’s 100 most “influential and powerful people.” Dr. Tarter was chosen in the “Scientist and Thinker” category for her leadership role in the scientific search for evidence of life on other worlds, and for her efforts to promote scientific literacy among youth, particularly girls and young women.

Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen has committed $13.5 million to support the construction of the first and second phases of the Allen Telescope Array (the ATA-32 and ATA-206), the world's newest multiple use radio telescope array.

The SETI Institute, a leader in the detection of life's bio-signatures, received special recognition of its work this week from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration when it was selected as a new Lead Team of NASA's Astrobiology Institute (NAI), the international research consortium coordinated through NAI's offices at NASA's Ames Research Center.

The SETI Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Charles H. Townes to the Institute's Board of Trustees, effective June 5. Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the laser, Townes' addition will expand the exceptional scientific expertise that distinguishes the SETI Institute Board.

The SETI Institute today announced the appointment of Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg to the Institutes Board of Trustees. Dr. Blumberg is a winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Blumberg's appointment fulfills an important Institute goal of expanding the scientific range of its board to match the broad scope of its mission and the interdisciplinary composition of its research team.

The SETI Institute has awarded the 2002 Frank Drake Award for Innovation in SETI and Life in the Universe Research to Charles H. Townes, Nobel Laureate and Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of California Berkeley.

The SETI Institute congratulates Board of Trustee member, Andrew Fraknoi, recipient of the 2002 Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization by Wonderfest, the Bay Area Festival of Science.

Few scientists have fired the popular imagination like Dr. Frank Drake. To honor the pioneering spirit of the man often proclaimed the “Father of SETI,” last year the SETI Institute established an award in his name. The Institute now seeks nominations for the 2002 Frank Drake Award for Innovation in SETI and Life In the Universe Research. Formal notices inviting nominations have been distributed to over 150 universities and research organizations both nationally and abroad.

The SETI Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Nathalie Cabrol was among the group of 28 scientists chosen by NASA for participation in the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission.

Compelling evidence for a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust makes Jupiter's moon Europa an attractive target for scientists seeking life in distant regions of our solar system. Recent work by Dr. Elisabetta Pierazzo, currently at the Planetary Science Institute, and Dr. Christopher Chyba of the SETI Institute, sheds light on the question of whether enough "biogenic elements," the raw ingredients for life, including carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus, could be present to support Europan life.

SETI Institute announces the addition of four high-tech leaders to its Board of Trustees: Lewis Platt, former Hewlett Packard Chairman and CEO; Linda Bernardi, founder and CEO of ConnecTerra, Inc.; Joel Birnbaum former HP Senior Vice President of Research and Director of HP Labs; and Alan Bagley, former HP executive.

SpaceRef Interactive Inc. today announced the donation of an experimental greenhouse to the SETI Institute’s Center for the Study of Life in the Universe. The donation supports research activities on Devon Island, Nunavut, in the Canadian high Arctic, conducted under the auspices of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project.

A team of scientists including SETI Institute and NASA researchers today announced the successful creation of amino acids, chemicals essential to life, in a laboratory simulation of conditions found in deep space.

The SETI Institute announced today the debut of its weekly, nationally-syndicated radio program, "Are We Alone?" - an hour-long, caller-driven talk show designed to answer listeners' questions about the search for life in the universe.

The SETI Institute is a partner for the NASA Discovery Mission, Kepler that will seek evidence for Earth-sized planets in orbit about sun-like stars.

The MacArthur Foundation has awarded its prestigious Fellowship to Christopher Chyba, holder of the Institute's Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe. The award, one of only 23 fellowships granted by the Chicago-based Foundation in 2001, goes to individuals "who show exceptional merit and promise of continued and enhanced creative work."

California astronomers are broadening the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) with a new experiment to look for powerful light pulses beamed our way from other star systems. Scientists from the University of California's Lick Observatory, the SETI Institute (Mountain View, California), UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley are coupling the Lick Observatory's 40-inch Nickel Telescope with a new pulse-detection system capable of finding laser beacons from civilizations many light-years distant. Unlike other optical SETI searches, this new experiment is largely immune to false alarms that slow the reconnaissance of target stars.

On July 12, the House Science Committee's Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics conducted a hearing on the matter of the subject of Life in the Universe.

Douglas Vakoch, the SETI Institute's resident Social Scientist, has been selected as one of the participants in a faculty seminar to be held in July 2001 at Calvin College on the topic "Biology and Purpose: Altruism, Morality, and Human Nature in Evolutionary Theory."

Could life thrive where the Sun never shines? The answer to this unorthodox question bears directly on the tantalizing possibility that life exists in the hidden, perpetually dark oceans that are thought to shroud some of Jupiter's moons, most prominently Europa.

SPACE.com, the premiere space multimedia company, today announced a strategic media partnership with the SETI Institute, the leading scientific research organization conducting the world's most comprehensive search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). In addition, SPACE.com has appointed Dr. Jill C. Tarter, director of the Institute's SETI programs and holder of the Institute's endowed Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI, to its advisory board.

Technologists Paul G. Allen and Nathan P. Myhrvold announce $12.5 million in support for revolutionary new telescope to advance Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI); new instrument to be called Allen Telescope Array, will also advance other astronomical research.

The first prototype of a revolutionary SETI telescope was unveiled at 40th anniversary of the world's first scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Elanix Incorporated announced today that it has donated several licenses of SystemView by Elanix to help the SETI Institute develop next-generation signal processing system to seek out evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. The donated licenses have a value of approximately $163,000.

SETI Institute and NASA scientists are now on a 'Mars Underwater' analog expedition until Nov. 23, investigating the limits of life in some of Earth's highest lakes in South America's Andes Mountains.