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SYFY WIRE Bad Astronomy

Finding E.T.

By Phil Plait
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My friend Seth Shostak is an astronomer, specifically a radio astronomer. That is, he looks at radio signals coming from space from various cosmic objects. But a while back, he decided to change his focus (haha, get it?) somewhat. He doesnât look for black holes and galaxies anymore. He looks for aliens.

He works with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, aka SETI. If youâve never heard of themâand seriously, câmonâthey are a group of dedicated scientists and engineers who think that advanced alien beings may exist, and may want to talk to us. Given some simple assumptions, you find that radio waves are the best way to do this: They travel at the speed of light, they are easy to detect, they can contain a lot of information, and budding civilizations are likely to be able to figure that out.

Still, the folks at SETI been searching a while and havenât heard anything. That doesnât slow Seth down, though, because he knows that our technology is increasing rapidly. Weâre getting so good at this, in fact, that Seth thinks we may hear from our cosmic brethren in the next 20 years or so!

But you know what? Iâll let him tell you all about it, in this TEDxSanJose talk he gave in April 2012. I think youâll quite enjoy it.

I think Seth makes a compelling case. And weâll know soon enough. The galaxy is big. But we know there are billions of planets out there, some of them quite oldâ¦and we are getting better at this. If E.T. is out there, I hope SETI can find it.

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