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Donors keep SETI open to listen for alien signals.

An array of 42 radio telescopes in Northern California that seek signs of intelligent life in the universe will continue that work after private donors raised enough money to keep them going, officials from the group said.



The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, Institute received more than $200,000, including donations from actress Jodie Foster.

The array was originally a joint project between the SETI Institute and the UC Berkeley Astronomy Laboratory, which pulled out earlier this year because of the loss of National Science Foundation grants and state budget cuts.

Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, said he was gratified the money could be raised during such tough economic times.

"People still think this very fundamental question - is there somebody out there as intelligent or more so than us? - is important and worth doing," he said.

Jodie Foster who starred in Contact also donated.


The telescopes at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory near the city of Mount Shasta (Siskiyou County), were funded by a $30 million gift from Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen.

They will be turned back on in September, recalibrated and operated 24 hours a day for the rest of the year as more funds are sought.

The array costs $2.5 million a year to operate with a full staff of 10 people. As a whole, the SETI Institute has an $18 million budget and 140 employees. The funding which comes from donors, NASA and the National Science Foundation.



SETI Institute CEO Tom Pierson told supporters in a letter that his goal is to raise $5 million so that the radio dishes can be pointed at 1,235 new so-called exoplanets that were announced in February by NASA's Kepler mission.

The array is not only used to search for extraterrestrials, but is also contributing to research into black holes, pulsars and magnetic fields in the Milky Way.

SETI
The San Francisco Chronicle

Alien hunters: Searching for life

The hunt for signals from intelligent extraterrestrials has been in full swing for half a century. But the effort's flagship facility recently came to a grinding halt.



The first of a two-part series on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) takes a look at the facility and what it means for Seti's future.

Click here to read more.

To Listen to the Broadcast: Click here

For one more time,scientific research is saved by donors,who are,globally trying to do anything they can.In this occasion it is because of them that SETI continues its very important way to succeeding in their goal,the discovery of extraterrestrial life and explicitly space research.In my opinion it is very essential to sustain such instituts(if we can say that SETI is one of them)!!!!!

Jodie Foster has done very well.........what's more,she had her one experience not only with SETI's,but with aliens too!!!!!!!!!!

I totally agree with Dimos the research for space for possible forms of life out there, for knowledge is essential and should be continued, despite the fact that the American government doesn't have the money to do it even though they have the money to carry out wars.

An interesting update concerning the ongoing search for intelligence in our universe...

'No signal' from targeted ET hunt


Very long baseline interferometry results in an effective antenna of many kilometres in size

The hunt for other intelligent civilisations has a new technique in its arsenal, but its first use has turned up no signs of alien broadcasts.

Click here to read more...

Source: Cornel University

Despite how fundamental I find consistent search for outer signals of life, the possibility of an actual engagement with alien civilisations appears to me as over confident. Humans invented telephones and lightbulbs a bit more than a century ago, which is about the lifespan of two generations in the civillised world. No matter how rapidly technology progresses it's still highly unlikely for any, even minor proof of intelligent life in space to be found by us or the upcoming generations.

So to sum it up, I do find SETI significant and worthy of preservation, but personally believe that such an amount of money could be put in a better use in some other fields.