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The Future of SETI Research
The scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), which began with a simple experiment in 1960, is undergoing rapid change. Scientists who participate in this research are more optimistic than ever before that they could find signals from space that would indicate that we're not alone.
They are bolstered in this view by several recent developments. In the past five years, astronomers have found that many stars have planets. At least 3 to 5 percent of Sun-like stars exhibit wobbles that are caused by orbiting worlds. The real percentage of stars with planets is undoubtedly much higher, and it is probable that tens of billions of planets are strewn throughout the star fields of our galaxy.
In addition, there is growing evidence for liquid water both on Mars and under the icy crust of Jupiter's moon, Europa. Liquid water is considered the essential ingredient for life, and it's quite possible that biology has sprung up on either or both of these worlds. If so, that would be compelling evidence that life is commonplace in the cosmos.
While SETI experiments have traditionally been carried out by borrowing or buying observing time on massive radio telescopes normally used for conventional astronomical research, that scheme is now changing. In Australia, a major SETI search known as Southern SERENDIP is "piggybacking" on a survey of the galactic plane being made with the Parkes 64 meter telescope, the largest such instrument south of the equator. The SETI search is done simultaneously with the galactic survey work, and thus SETI and conventional radio astronomy can co-exist to make the best use of precious telescope time.
In California, the SETI Institute is constructing a new radio instrument, the Allen Telescope Array, which will be used 24 hours a day for simultaneous observations by radio astronomers and SETI researchers. This telescope is being built in an entirely new way: hundreds of "satellite" dishes are joined to form an instrument that is the equivalent of a single, 100 meter antenna.
In addition to these vastly improved radio searches, SETI is looking for signals that might be sent at visible wavelengths or in the infrared. Experiments at the Universities of California at Santa Cruz and Berkeley and at Harvard are using relatively large, conventional mirror telescopes to hunt for very brief flashes of light (presumably from high-powered lasers) that other civilizations might be beaming our way.
While SETI searches have previously been limited in extent or sensitivity, the march of technology is is changing that substantially. In the next few decades, hundreds of thousands of stars - perhaps even millions - will be subject to the careful gaze of radio and optical telescopes. It may be that the proof that we are not alone in the universe will arrive soon.