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Alan Boyle / msnbc.com
SETI astronomer Jill Tarter looks out from the radio dish named after her at the Allen Telescope Array in northern California. The array's 42 linked dishes search for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.
The real-life astronomer who inspired the central character in "Contact," the book and movie about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, is retiring from her research post at the age of 68. But that doesn't mean Jill Tarter is giving up on the SETI quest. Instead, she's focusing on the search for funding for the non-profit SETI Institute.
For most of the institute's 28-year history, Tarter has been serving as director of the Center for SETI Research as well as holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI. "I've worn two hats," she explained. Now she's passing along the center's top research hat to physicist Gerry Harp, a colleague at the institute — and wearing the Oliver Chair hat full-time as a fundraiser.
"We have got to get this endeavor stably funded," she told me.
Tarter knows as well as anyone on Earth how much of a challenge that will be. In the 1980s and 1990s, she participated in NASA-funded efforts to search for alien radio signals — efforts that drew intense fire from some members of Congress. The fire became so intense that NASA as well as the National Science Foundation were barred from funding SETI research in 1993. To keep hope alive, Tarter spearheaded a program to continue the search with private donations.
Breakthrough ... then, a bummer
A breakthrough came in 2007 with the dedication of the 42-antenna Allen Telescope Array in Northern California, a facility funded with $25 million in seed money from software billionaire Paul Allen and matching funds from other contributors. The SETI Institute partnered with the University of California at Berkeley to operate the array, and it looked as if the search for alien signals was finally on stable footing.
That didn't last long, however.
Berkeley had to drop out of the partnership due to money troubles. Last year, the institute mothballed the array and put out a plea for $200,000 in contributions to restart operations. "That certainly put an exclamation point on the funding crisis," Tarter said. The money was raised in a month and a half — thanks in part to a big financial and moral vote of support from actress-director Jodie Foster, who played the Tarter character (named Ellie Arroway) in the movie version of "Contact."
Now the telescope array is back in business with a new partner, SRI International, which maintains the facility in return for getting half of the array's observing time to track satellites and orbital debris for the U.S. Air Force. But Tarter wants to get the institute's SETI effort out of its scrimp-and-scrape mode. "Lots of startups do that, but they don't last very long if they don't get secure funding," she said.
One of Tarter's top objectives is to build up an endowment for SETI research. "I find it very interesting that at any one time, even in this economy, there are endowment campaigns of $100 million. We could be one of them," she said.
Stable funding would reassure the researchers who work with the institute that they'll be able to pursue their projects over the long term, Tarter said. "We have to make this a real destination for folks who want to do visionary things. ... They're in some sense hanging on a cliff, because there's no guaranteed scientific payoff, although there are lots of interesting instrumentation payoffs along the way," she said.
New twists for SETI
Lots of interesting twists are in store for the SETI quest. For example, researchers are working their way through a list of hundreds of candidate planets identified by NASA's Kepler mission. Tarter said about 10 percent of the Kepler field has been surveyed so far, at a rate of 30 targets a day.
"We don't yet have Earth 2.0, but we almost can taste it," she said. "That will change the whole approach. Does anybody live there? That's going to concretize so many things which are now a bit abstract."
The institute is already using a survey setup that checks three star systems at once for telltale patterns in radio emissions that could hint at an artificial source. The setup, known as SonATA, uses the triple-check to confirm the nature of any interesting effect that's detected. If the same effect is detected from three separate directions, that's a tip-off that the telescopes are picking up on earthly radio interference rather than E.T.'s phone call.
"The next thing we're going to take on is real-time imaging of a wide field of view," Tarter said. "There are lots of challenges there, and lots of opportunities for SETI detections that haven't been there in the past."
Those are the sorts of challenges that Gerry Harp will be taking on as the new director of the Center for SETI Research. Meanwhile, Tarter will be focusing on the long-term future of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
"If we can get the research to the next level, there is something so fundamental that we can learn from the detection of a signal, even if it's just a cosmic dial tone," Tarter said. The message would be that technological civilizations can actually survive long enough to reach out to other corners of the cosmos.
"If they can do it, then dammit, we can do it," Tarter said.
More about the SETI quest:
- Gallery: 50 years of looking for E.T.
- Interactive: What are the odds of finding E.T.?
- Scientists need your eyes to look for E.T.
- Cosmic Log archive on SETI
The SETI Institute is celebrating Tarter's 35 years of SETI research at SETIcon II, set for June 22-24 at the Santa Clara Hyatt in California's Silicon Valley. SETIcon is a public convention that draws together more than 60 scientists, artists and entertainers to focus on the present and future search for life in the universe. Tarter will be honored at a gala event on June 23. Speakers will include fellow SETI astronomer Frank Drake; former astronaut Mae Jemison, a leader of the 100 Year Starship effort; and "Star Trek" actor Robert Picardo. Tickets are available via the SETIcon website.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Kindly remember, there have been many other dedicated researchers over the years at SETI including hardware and software developers from the beginning. Jill may have been the the face of SETI press, but she was not in the beginning planning and development stages which conceived and implemented the project.
"...she was not in the beginning planning and development stages..." - Actually, Jill has been a SETI researcher from the very first formal conference on the subject, attending as a young grad student. (It was at this same conference when Frank Drake shared his eponymous equation.)
Michael, I'm so glad SOMEBODY on these science threads knows what the heck they are talking about!
It was a year or so before Chabot Observatory was to be moved higher up into the Skyline district of the Oakland Hills. You can try to tell me it was ISS or Hubble....but they're not powered craft or would appear orange and powered, and I'm not sure if Hubble or ISS was even launched yet at the time. I saw the object disappear as I recall above the horizon well between Orion and some other Constellation and there seemed to be heading toward a specific area within a constellation to ones right of Orion. If to stretch the timeline even further if it was in or near 1987...and if that supernova was in that region of space...looking back on the whole thing in trying to put two and two together, ok so aliens were travelling to see supernova 1987a or were trying to get there before it would occurr. and if its not in that region of space...oh well...but that's where the object faded...and I know how astronomy programs work to go back in time to celestial positions. This object was powered which makes it unique, in the wee hours of the morning I probably would have seen other satellites and would which likely would have been completely shadowed by the earth in the midnight to 3 am period so no sunlight refelection would have been likely. I didn't see anything else for the duration I was following this object...it could not be seen with your eyes, I should have seen at least a star in the spotter scope, since I saw nothing throught the spotter I assumed the lens cap was off and ignored it...the object was just out there too far and not "closer than they appear" even with a big 18 inch mirror that can resolve the moons of Jupiter, its bands, Saturns moons, and rings. This thing appeared to be travelling out there among the other planets, it did not give me the impression it was any nearby orbital object. The apparent distance of the object is what struck me the most and you can't tell me I saw anything different or change that impression, you can try, but you're wasting your time. What if it was going to observe that supernova, if only that an advanced curious civilization can do that and we can't as of yet. It is one of those once in a lifetime events that allows one to believe that we are part of a much larger universe, that there are different timescales for intelligent civilizations to evolve, that it is possible to concieve those timescales.
I did not "try to tell you it was ISS or Hubble" - since you did not provide a date in your original post, I did not assume that they were launched as of the time of your story - I used them as examples of well-known satellites that are easily seen with the naked eye that transit the sky pretty much as you described. You stated that there is no way it could be a satellite, as they do not move across the sky in that fashion, when yet, they do.
"and I know how astronomy programs work to go back in time to celestial positions." Good. Enter the date, time, and lat & long, and you can see for yourself EXACTLY what sats were in your field of view, in what orbits, and of what visual magnitude; you will find. Why haven't you taken this minimal step to check out what you saw?
"I could assume that extra energy output may have been neccessary to exit the sheath or bubble of our solar system into interstellar space." That's one heck of an assumption. Another possibility - the solar panels of an orbiting sat were aligned for a moment, reflecting a bit more sunlight your way.
"...you can't tell me I saw anything different or change that impression, you can try, but you're wasting your time." Apparently so, if your mind is closed to even considering the alternatives. That's not a very scientific stance.
Still, what you describe (less the flowery descriptions) match exactly what the 90+ re-dawn naked eye bright satellites passing over my dome tonight look like, (I have a similarly long list for post-sunset); the first is in a high enough orbit that it is illuminated by the Sun at 2:19am. Seven satellites on my list from just tonight would seem to match your description of events:
Satellite Brightness StartHighest point End
Cosmos 1943 Rocket4.402:19:0318°ENE02:19:0318°ENE02:21:1010°NE
Atlas Centaur 23.103:03:4972°WNW03:04:3376°NNW03:13:1010°ENE
ATLAS 3B R/B3.903:04:5728°SE03:06:2331°ESE03:12:2910°NE
Cosmos 23694.303:08:0355°NE03:08:0355°NE03:12:3210°NNE
NOSS 3-4 (A)4.103:05:1610°NNW03:12:0662°ENE03:19:0510°SE
NOSS 3-4 (C)4.103:05:2310°NNW03:12:1261°ENE03:19:1010°SE
ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B4.303:15:0619°NNE03:15:0619°NNE03:16:2910°NE
Cosmos 16264.203:28:1026°NNE03:28:1026°NNE03:30:0010°N
GPS 2-04 Rocket14.103:29:3643°NNE03:29:3643°NNE03:33:1010°NE
Cosmos 923 Rocket4.003:37:2773°ESE03:37:3373°ESE03:42:4310°NNE
SPOT 3 Rocket3.603:33:1910°N03:38:0368°NNW03:38:0368°NNW
Cosmos 18924.003:43:4736°ESE03:44:1337°E03:47:5710°NNE
Cosmos 1125 Rocket3.403:41:5210°NNW03:46:4071°WNW03:46:4071°WNW
RESURS DK-14.403:42:5810°NNW03:44:2020°NNW03:44:2020°NNW
Centaur AC-723.503:52:2632°S03:52:2632°S03:56:4610°SE
Meteor 2-12 Rocket4.403:45:0510°N03:51:1483°E03:54:4827°S
ADEOS Rocket2.803:51:0538°S03:53:2983°WSW03:59:4510°NNW
Cosmos 2112 Rocket4.203:53:0845°SSE03:54:3967°ESE03:59:5310°NNE
Cosmos 2227 Rocket4.303:52:1010°NNE03:56:4926°ENE04:01:2710°ESE
GPS 2-15 Rocket14.303:59:3029°SSE03:59:3029°SSE04:02:1510°SE
Cosmos 2181 Rocket3.803:53:4910°N04:00:0075°W04:02:5234°S
PAYLOAD B4.303:54:2910°NNE04:00:0478°ESE04:02:3235°S
Cosmos 1025 Rocket3.703:54:3610°N03:58:5454°E04:01:3322°SSE
MOS 14.203:54:4010°NNE04:00:2386°ESE04:02:4438°S
Cosmos 1602 Rocket3.503:54:5910°N03:59:2890°ENE04:00:0865°S
Cosmos 2184 Rocket4.203:57:2523°S04:01:2771°E04:07:4010°N
Cosmos 1943 Rocket3.204:00:3630°WNW04:00:3630°WNW04:05:1310°N
Cosmos 1656 Rocket3.904:01:2944°WNW04:01:4245°WNW04:06:5110°N
Okean-O2.703:56:4610°N04:01:0260°WNW04:01:0260°WNW
TITAN 4B R/B1.804:01:5353°S04:02:4365°ESE04:07:2810°NE
USA 1164.004:04:3250°NNW04:04:3250°NNW04:07:2810°NNW
Okean O Rocket1.704:02:1110°N04:06:3355°WNW04:06:3855°W
Abrixas4.104:06:1534°SE04:06:2835°SE04:09:5210°ENE
Cosmos 17824.304:03:3410°NNW04:05:4026°NW04:05:4026°NW
IRS-1C4.004:04:1610°N04:09:3575°WNW04:11:3439°SSW
Cosmos 1697 Rocket4.304:09:3810°SSE04:14:2530°ESE04:19:1310°NE
Cosmos 20823.804:09:5410°NNW04:15:3776°ENE04:21:1810°SSE
CBERS-14.004:09:5910°N04:15:0060°WNW04:16:3840°SW
Spot 4 Rocket3.904:11:5310°NNE04:17:0388°WNW04:19:5827°SSW
Cosmos 773 Rocket4.104:14:2225°S04:17:2372°ESE04:22:3510°NNE
Nimbus 7 Rocket4.304:12:3010°S04:18:2981°WSW04:24:2610°NNW
Delta 1983.804:16:4937°W04:18:5277°SSW04:24:4510°ESE
Meteor 1-27 Rocket3.704:14:1010°NNW04:19:3358°W04:22:5723°SSW
Skynet4D Del rocket4.404:18:1525°W04:22:5770°NNW04:29:4410°ENE
Sakura Rocket4.404:17:0614°WNW04:21:3155°NNE04:28:4210°E
CZ-4B R/B3.704:18:2210°N04:23:3242°WNW04:25:1832°WSW
CZ-4B DEB4.204:18:2810°NNE04:24:0189°WNW04:28:1018°SSW
ASC 2 Rocket3.604:23:2130°WSW04:26:4785°SSE04:31:3910°E
Cosmos 2074 Rocket4.004:22:4923°SSW04:26:4863°W04:32:5710°N
Meteor 1-14 Rocket4.404:29:2427°SW04:32:1249°W04:37:3310°N
PSLV R/B4.204:27:5810°N04:32:1940°WNW04:33:5030°WSW
Cosmos 1980 Rocket3.804:31:3610°SSE04:36:3432°ESE04:41:3010°NE
Cosmos 540 Rocket3.504:37:0122°SSW04:40:1459°WNW04:45:1910°N
CSL-04 Debris4.104:35:3010°N04:40:5674°WNW04:46:0811°SSW
Cosmos 1680 Rocket4.404:38:3824°WSW04:40:3031°WNW04:45:0810°N
FUSE4.004:39:5121°W04:43:2673°N04:48:4610°ENE
Cosmos 2058 Rocket3.204:39:3610°S04:44:0079°E04:48:2710°N
Spot 2 Rocket3.404:40:4310°N04:45:4777°WNW04:50:5110°SSW
Zi Yuan 23.904:40:5110°NNE04:44:0546°E04:47:1810°S
Cosmos 489 Rocket4.504:41:2110°NNW04:47:2560°WSW04:53:2910°S
Intelsat 3F5 C4.504:43:0729°NW04:43:3432°NNW04:45:5010°NE
CZ-2C R/B2.504:42:0310°NNE04:47:1889°ESE04:52:2710°SSW
Mugunghwa Rocket4.304:45:1420°SW04:49:3958°SSE04:56:1310°E
ARIANE 5 R/B3.304:45:2010°NNE04:50:2353°E04:55:2110°S
GPS 2-12 Rocket13.504:47:3920°WSW04:50:4149°SSW04:55:2410°ESE
Cosmos 2322 Rocket4.104:47:0510°SSE04:51:5129°ESE04:56:3810°NE
Atlas Centaur 23.904:47:1810°W04:55:4047°N05:03:1610°ENE
Helios 1A Rocket4.104:48:0510°SSE04:52:1248°ENE04:56:2010°N
Cosmos 1606 Rocket3.504:49:2811°SSW04:53:2959°W04:57:4510°N
Cosmos 16563.704:49:3010°SSW04:54:5578°ESE05:00:2010°NNE
SL-8 R/B2.904:49:4610°NNE04:53:1190°W04:56:3510°SSW
ATLAS 3B R/B3.604:52:1417°WSW04:56:5135°WNW05:03:2810°N
Intelsat 5-1 Rocket4.004:51:5516°SW04:55:5651°SSE05:09:4810°ENE
ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B4.304:51:4210°NW04:53:1812°N04:54:5510°NNE
Cosmos 2154 Rocket4.104:53:2710°S04:59:3782°E05:05:4810°N
Iridium 4 Rocket3.604:54:2710°SSE04:58:3160°E05:02:4610°N
Aureole 2 Rocket4.304:56:5010°S05:01:0346°E05:05:5910°NNE
SL-08 R/B4.204:56:5910°SSW05:01:1329°W05:05:2410°NW
Cosmos 44 Rocket3.605:08:0110°SW05:12:5151°WNW05:17:3610°NNE
GPS 2-13 Rocket12.205:09:1612°W05:12:2585°S05:15:4910°E
Cosmos 1726 Rocket4.405:13:0810°SW05:16:5931°W05:20:4910°NNW
Cosmos 1953 Rocket3.705:13:3310°NNW05:17:4651°W05:22:0110°SSW
Cosmos 14413.105:13:5810°SSW05:17:2151°W05:20:4410°N
DELTA 2 R/B (1)4.305:14:3610°NW05:20:0357°NNE05:25:2910°ESE
EPKM3.505:15:338°WNW05:18:2024°NNE05:19:5110°ENE
ATLAS V CENTAUR R/B3.305:19:2010°SW05:20:0014°SSW05:21:5210°ESE
Resurs 01 Rocket2.005:20:2410°N05:24:3947°WNW05:28:5310°SSW
Cosmos 14082.805:20:5710°SSW05:24:4157°W05:28:2510°N
ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B4.205:24:5410°NNW05:29:5376°E05:50:0310°SSE
Cosmos 18252.405:24:5710°SSW05:28:4954°W05:32:4010°N
Intelsat 5-3 Rocket3.705:26:0610°W05:30:1985°NE05:41:5310°E
deb Centaur AC-24.305:26:1810°WSW05:30:4978°SSE05:36:0910°ENE
"Why haven't you taken this minimal step to check out what you saw?" because eric finds the fantasy to be more interesting than reality?
thanks for your morning satellite list michael. i had no idea that theres so many that could be seen every day! we sure have lots and lots of stuff up there!
I don't mean to diminish her dedication, and SETI is a worthwhile endevour, but I just can't imagine having one goal for your career of 35 years (that of catching one stray radio signal) and not achieving it. OY VAY!
I think if we were to discover that we are definitely not alone, that it would change the world dramatically. That's why SETI is so important.
The irony of all of this discussion and even the work of SETI is that contact is already happening. Hundreds of folks (if not many more) across the planet are ALREADY purposely interacting with ETs on a monthly basis. This is something that anyone can do. Please go out to CETI dot com and check it out (not to be confused with SETI). You can even get on an email list that is sent out about all of the reports of ET contact – the results of which are amazing.
If the government is not going to officially acknowledge that ETs exist, if the United Nations is not going to officially acknowledge that ETs exist and act as an official intermediary, then it is up to us to open our arms. We have everything to gain.
No, they'll just want money.. those pics of the malnourished aliens get me every time
http://www.ceti.com/
Centre European de Textile Innovant? I'm pretty sure that this has nothing whatsoever to do with extraterrestrial communication, unless perhaps the ETs are sending Europe some secret info on how to make more comfortable cotton-polyester microfiber blends.
My mistake..........it is CSETI CSETI (having a bad week, sorry) CSETI DOT COM
Im just a laymen in all this but it does intrigue me. I guess its possible, it happened here. For life to blossom on earth many things had to happen and they are astounding in themselves, when you take those possibilities into account it seems impossible that such a series of events could happen again, but taking the billions of planets in our vast universe into account it has to be plausible.. its quite possible that their is a planet out there that is just starting out like we did, cavemen, the works.. and its also quite possible that their is a planet out there that is more advanced than we are and look just like us.. who knows what an alien will look like.. maybe we even have alternate worlds.. their is a lot going on we simply don'tunderstand.. IMO we just cant be all their is... not with all that universe.
Thank you, Alan Boyle, for an excellent article.
Here's a comment from my blog:
And a bit of news: Sagan passed away in 1996, but Hawking is well and is coming to town. He’ll be giving a lecture in Cupertino, CA, not that far from SETI, on Tuesday, June 19th 2012. It is a coincidence that during the same week, SETI is hosting SETIcon, a conference to salute science, imagination (meaning sci-fi), and Tarter June 22 – 24, 2012? I wonder if Hawking will be there.