 |
|||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||
About us
- Our Mission
- Leadership Chairs
- Board of Trustees
- Staff
- Jobs
- Volunteer
- FAQ
- Site Map
- Giftshop
- Our Location
- Contact Us
Dr. Gerry Harp
"When I saw the position opening at the SETI Institute," says physicist Gerry Harp, "I knew that this was what I was looking for." Harp draws on his expertise i n wave mechanics, holography, and computer software to help the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) see the stars more clearly against the backdrop of radiation that comes from Earth. "The Allen Telescope Array is a world-class radio interferometer, where the wave-properties of light here radio waves are exploited to extract as much information as possible about the universe around us," Harp explains. "Getting the most from an interferometer like the ATA is a rapidly evolving field, and it is very exciting for me to participate in the development of this new instrument."
"You might think that it would be easy to tell where signals come from," says Harp, the Institute's Senior Software Scientist. "Just look where your telescope is pointing! But imperfections in our telescopes make this problem harder than you might guess. For ETI signals in particular, we want to be absolutely certain that artificial signals we receive really come from outer space."
With the ATA's capacity to examine multiple locations in the sky simultaneously, astronomers can study natural phonomena while also searching for signs of intelligence. "Astronomical observations are the best source of information we have about how the universe works on long time scales, what happens at high energies or in high gravity fields, and how life develops," says Harp. "This gold mine of information is ready to provide us with fresh answers. All we have to do is dig them out."
- SETI Institute Explorer, Special Edition 2005