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SETI@HOME
A
short community of 200 professional astronomers are
involved in long-term programs searching evidences of extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe,
known under the acronym of SETI as it was quickly confirmed a direct
contact was impossible to establish or very uncertain (CETI).
What
arguments justify this fundamental research ?
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Bioastronomers believe the life has appeared in the cosmos wherein the
optimist remind us there must be an infinity of life forms,
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What happened in the Earth coffin may happen elsewhere, even if life has
evolved to species much different from what we know,
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At last we have to assume that human intelligence is not the top of the
evolution.
Conclusion
say bioastronomers, they must be more advanced civilizations than ours
in the universe able to transmit voluntary of not electromagnetic waves
we could detect.
Starting
with these assumptions scientists conducted over fifty SETI projects.
With high and low according political hazards, since 1960 they never had
cancellation of these researches.
The
last project to date is Optical SETI, the search for extremely short
pulses in visible light (narrowband or monochomatic) from Sun-like
stars. Amateurs can join OSETI. What you need is a 200mm scope or larger
and a photometer.
Far
to be a joke, some media however confused SETI and UFO at a point the US
Congress cancelled his support to NASA project MegaSETI.
Since
that sad day of 1993, private donations continue to support this
activity bringing in 2000 the Planetary Society funding over $1,000,000.
Today
YOU are also in position to help SETI.
If
you own a computer you can even process yourself raw data from SETI@home
project (now supported by BOINC) and
send back your results to Berkeley University and SETI community. Over
5 millions amateurs are today involved in this quest, whom 600,000 are
participating actively.
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