The news last week that a concerted scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence by the SETI Institute in California has resumed raises fundamental questions: If we made contact, what would we say? And what answers would we anticipate? The SETI Institute has begun an online outreach program called Earth Speaks to solicit messages. Dimitra Atri, a [...]
Have you ever given any thought to intergalactic SETI? On the face of it, the idea seems absurd — we have been doing SETI in one form or another since the days of Project Ozma and without result. If we can’t pick up radio signals from nearby stars that tell us of extraterrestrial civilizations, how [...]
New York Times (blog)Is Anyone Out There? Examining Astrobiology and the Value of SETINew York Times (blog)They learn about SETI, the search for extraterrestrial life, explore some of the challenges facing this field, and develop proposals seeking financing for aspects of SETI research to pitch to venture capitalists. What is life?Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Recovering From Economic DownturnHuffington Post (blog)all 2 news...
Comment of the Day: On Fermi's ParadoxThe Daily Galaxy (blog)"I believe Fermi's paradox to be an arrogant assumption. Say "intelligent" life is rare enough that it only occurs once or twice per galaxy. Sure that makes the universe potentialy teeming with intelligent life.... But that also means that the nearest ...and more »
What's the Latest Development? In December, the world's most advanced search for extraterrestrial intelligence, called SETI, resumed scanning the skies for alien signals. SETI currently utilizes an array of 42 radio telescopes, located at the ...
"I believe Fermi's paradox to be an arrogant assumption. Say "intelligent" life is rare enough that it only occurs once or twice per galaxy. Sure that makes the universe potentialy teeming with intelligent life.... But that also means that the...Read Full Story
Are we the lone sentient life in the universe? So far, we have no evidence to the contrary, and yet the odds that not one single other planet has evolved intelligent life would appear, from a statistical standpoint, to be quite small. There are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 10¹¹ ) stars in the Milky Way alone, and over 70 sextillion (7 x 10²² ) in the visible universe, and many of them are surrounded by multiple planets. The shear size of the known universe is staggeringly and inconceivably...Read Full Story
Are we the lone sentient life in the universe? So far, we have no evidence to the contrary, and yet the odds that not one single other planet has evolved intelligent life would appear, from a statistical standpoint, to be quite small. There are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 1011) stars in the Milky Way alone, and over 70 sextillion (7 x 1022) in the visible universe, and many of them are surrounded by multiple planets. The shear size of the known universe is staggeringly and inconceivably...Read Full Story
"The idea that we are the only intelligent creatures in a cosmos
of a hundred billion galaxies is so preposterous that there are very
few astronomers today who would take it seriously. It is safest to
assume therefore, that they are out there and to consider the manner in
which this may impinge upon human society."
Arthur C. Clarke, physicist and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey One of the greatest philosophical and scientific challenges that currently
confronts humanity is the unsolved...Read Full Story
"The idea that we are the only intelligent creatures in a cosmos
of a hundred billion galaxies is so preposterous that there are very
few astronomers today who would take it seriously. It is safest to
assume therefore, that they are out there and to consider the manner in
which this may impinge upon human society."
Arthur C. Clarke, physicist and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey One of the greatest philosophical and scientific challenges that currently
confronts humanity is the unsolved...Read Full Story
The Fermi Paradox is an apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for or contact with such civilizations.