SETI: Searching for Alien Intelligence

SETI is an acronym for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. SETI has been around in various forms for over 100 years and several large agencies such as NASA have undertaken SETI-related research.

There are many scientific ways to look for alien intelligence, for example:

Examine radio waves coming from the cosmos to see if they contain any artificially-generated signals (similar to those we create here on Earth and send out in to space).
Analyze the atmospheres of distant planets to look for clues such as pollutants that don't occur naturally.

The funding peak for SETI projects came in the 1970s but since then government grants have dried up. There are currently no governments running serious SETI programs. It is therefore left up to private organizations and citizens to keep up the search.

SETI@home Display

This is one of our "citizen science" displays—showcasing a genuine scientific project that anyone can be involved in.

SETI@home is an application you can download and run as a stand-alone program or as a screensaver. Here's how it works:

Radio telescopes scan the sky and collect data from naturally-occurring radio waves. These data are divided into small chunks called work units.
When you run the SETI@home application, it automatically downloads some work units and begins analyzing them. As it works you can choose to watch the progress as a graphical display (shown below).
When each work unit has been analyzed the results are uploaded to the SETI@home server.
If one of your work units contains data that turns out to be from an extra-terrestrial civilization, you get to share the credit for discovering aliens!

SETI@Home screenshot

Above: The type of signal you normally see.
Below: Example of a signal that could indicate an extra-terrestrial source.

SETI: Searching for Alien Intelligence

SETI@home Display

Links