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Sky's the Limit in Powerful New Searches for Alien Life  

Posted Feb 21, 08 4:27 AM CST in Science & Health    Most Covered

(newser) – Powerful new instruments will help scientists in their search for extra-terrestrial life, the Christian Science Monitor writes. New telescopes will make it possible for the SETI Institute to scan millions of star systems for alien radio signals. Only a thousand have been analyzed in detail so far, but the institute hopes to get more new data in the next two years than it has collected in the last half-century. 

The search for exoplanets—planets outside our solar system—will also help the hunt for ETs. Nearly 300 exoplanets have already been found, including two new discovered just last week. Most are gas giants but new instruments will help astronomers spot Earth-like planets, and even judge how life-friendly they could be, a task one astronomer called "a priority of enormous resonance, both scientific and emotional."

Source Christian Science Monitor

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Sky's the Limit in Powerful New Searches for Alien Life
A computer-generated simulation provided by the Lowell Observatory of an alien planet called TrES-4, with its host star on the right. Scientists are discovering more new planets all the time and many...   (Associated Press)
Sky's the Limit in Powerful New Searches for Alien Life
SETI research scientists at work.   (KRT Photos)
Sky's the Limit in Powerful New Searches for Alien Life
Under the Milky Way   ((c) jurvetson)
Sky's the Limit in Powerful New Searches for Alien Life
Under the Milky Way   ((c) jurvetson)
Sky's the Limit in Powerful New Searches for Alien Life
Only a tiny portion of the cosmos has been checked for alien signals, but powerful new radio telescopes could start searching millions of stars of alien signals.   ((c) jurvetson)
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space  • astronomy  • extraterrestrial life  • aliens  • exoplanet  • radio telescope  • telescopes  • SETI


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