Join the Search for ET
The SETI Institute (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) is calling for alien hunters around the world to join the search for intelligent life in the universe. Last week, the institute launched the beta test of Android app, SetiQuest Explorer, allowing smart phone users to help crunch data coming from outer space
The crowdsourced initiative will have volunteers looking for patterns in the fuzzy noise from radio signals picked up by the Allen Telescope Array in Northern California. The telescopes are trained on stars beyond the Solar System that are though to possibly be able to sustain life.
According to a CNET article, the idea began two years ago, when SETI director Jill Tartar lamented that when it came to poring over satellite data, “all of the concerted SETI efforts over the last 40 some years are equivalent to scooping a single glass of water from the oceans”. An attendee at the presentation during which she made that statement was compelled to help and went into action, eventually creating the current app, aided by funding from Adobe.
Registered users of SetiQuest Explorer will receive an assignment, the star for which they are responsible, which will be displayed for them in Google Sky. A tiny slice of the universe is displayed in Google Sky with a target in view. Users receive information about the target, such as the name of the star, its distance from Earth, its coordinates, and how many planets it has.
While this app is designed to pick up messages sent by aliens, a future project may allow the world to test messages being sent to aliens from earth. Another SETI team is working to design a standard protocol for writing intelligible letters to extraterrestrials, and hoping to enlist help in testing messages to ensure they make sense. “We want to make sure we’re not being too anthropocentric, making sure the answer can be accessible to the lowest common denominator,” said astrobiologist Jacob Haqq-Misra in an interview with Wired. “Until we meet one, we won’t know” how to talk to them. The team hopes to have a website up by the summer where users can submit messages that fit the protocol, and try to crack each others’ codes.
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