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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: While some scientists are watching things circling the Earth, others are searching the sky for something that is not made by humans. SETI -- the search for extraterrestrial intelligence -- is back on the job. But the question is: for how long? SETI has been searching the stars for nearly thirty years. But its scientists say the group has never had enough money. Last year, SETI suspended operations for a time. But the general public and some very wealthy people have given enough money to re-start the project.
JIM TEDDER: In February, SETI scientists began asking the public to help them with their research. The scientists are using a website to re-direct radio signals over the Internet. They have asked the public to use home computers, and their ears, to search for anything unusual. They hope the human brain can find things that their automated equipment cannot.
SETI’s telescopes and computers examine many different radio frequencies every day. But they ignore some frequencies because there are just too many radio signals in the air at any one time. The scientists hope that home computers will find an unusual sound “hidden” within sounds made by the technologies we use every day. In other words, they think that an alien radio signal might be covered up by the powerful signal of a local radio station.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Much of SETI’s work involves the Allen Telescope Array -- over forty radio telescopes located in northeastern California. Scientists there point the circular antennas at an area of the sky called Cygnus. They are hoping to hear some signal or noise that is being sent into space by intelligent life. They hope to answer perhaps the biggest scientific question: are we alone in the universe? The area of the sky being searched seems large. But it really is a small part of the whole universe.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25