Technological advances in telescopes, observational equipment, and computers are at the forefront of what portends to be rapid advancements in the continuing search for extraterrestrial intelligence, scientists told House lawmakers last week. Such developments in the next 20 years will enable the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute and other alien-hunting agencies to gather information faster and more reliably, thus aiding in the search for alien civilizations.
As Space reported last week, scientists involved in research for SETI, which has been on the hunt for signs of alien life and tell-tale markers of extraterrestrial civilizations for over half a century, were in Washington to lobby for government funding for astronomical projects, testifying before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Among them was Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, who provided congress with details concerning the current state of SETI initiatives, one of which is the ongoing search for artificial radio signals that could possibly be productions of intelligent aliens.
“This experiment will only succeed if we can look at about a million or so star systems,” Shostak told the House committee. “That would have taken thousands of years with the current technology. Thanks to improvements, mostly in computers, that is speeding up by orders of magnitude. Over next 20 years we will be able to look at about a million other star systems.”
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