The constant depictions of contact with extraterrestrial life and their constant basic presence in science fiction shows the deep human desire for connection and transcendence with other life forms. In reality, continuous efforts on the search for aliens are being made by renown not-for-profit research organization such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) since 1984. Over the years, plenty of detected signals were dismissed as noise from transmitters on Earth or orbiting satellites but one – the “Wow!” signal. However, artificial signals from extraterrestrial sources could be the key to detecting extraterrestrial intelligence. Apart from passively searching, some are doing active SETI, or known as METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence), where humans create and transmit interstellar messages to aliens instead of waiting for theirs. Substantial effort in many areas – awareness, time, technological advancement, techniques – would be necessary to increase the probability of locating outer space intelligence.
TopSeti And Meti
Human’s curiosity never stops us from trying anything. We are not just interested in hearing from aliens, but also trying to talk to them. This is the main distinction between the two modes of alien communication that we are currently conducting – the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI). SETI’s main focus is searching for messages from aliens, and to answer the question “are we alone?”. METI, on the other hand, is about creating messages to aliens and let everyone knows that “you are not alone!”.
A systematic search for life beyond Earth started with an article (“Searching for Interstellar Communications”) dated back to 1959, which was published in Nature by two nuclear physicists named Giuseppe Cocconi (cosmic ray specialist) and Philip Morrison. Cocconi and Morrison suggested that a systematic search for life forms from outer space was worth the effort – using electromagnetic waves, specifically the radio region at the proposed frequencies (hydrogen frequency). The duo wrote that “we shall assume that long ago they established a channel of communication that would one day become known to us, and that they look forward patiently to the answering signals from the Sun which would make known to them that a new society has entered the community of intelligence”. Before this, not many reliable theories were available to estimate the probabilities of extraterrestrial intelligence. Radio waves have been used in the search since these waves have the longest wavelengths that can penetrate and travel deep into space without interference by thick clouds of gas and dust. With renewed optimism of the space age, it fueled the debut of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) program. It was the start of a new era where SETI started utilizing radio telescopes to detect radio waves with special patterns, which could signify the presence of other life forms in outer space.
Throughout the 1960s, SETI has evolved from the realm of speculation to scientific enquiry after the introduction of radio telescopes. Similar to Cocconi and Morrison’s notable proposal, Drake had gained a funding, with the help from a renowned astronomer named Otto Struve, for a project on the radio search for natural radio emissions from interstellar hydrogen gas clouds. Drake was at an advantage to prove his formal professional quest of finding aliens. Shortly in 1960, Drake moved on to perform the first modern SETI experiment known as Project Ozma, inspired by his supposed radio contact with Princess Ozma from The Marvelous Land of Oz – a faraway place which is inhabited by strange beings. The Green Bank telescope was used by Drake’s team to observe sun-like stars such as Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. The team picked up some signals from the second star, Epsilon Eridani, but a thought came to Drake’s mind which was of importance to direct SETI towards real science in action: was the signal confirmed to be artificial and not of human origin, and if not, what could they do to avoid false data? Unfortunately, they concluded that the mysterious signals could be of human origin since he constantly picked up the same signal pulsing through the airwaves when he aimed towards another antenna at a wide region of the sky. However, Project Ozma went on to become the model for future radio-based SETI projects. Although the project failed to locate extraterrestrial (E.T.) intelligence, the observation of sun-like stars has made a big impact/impression on us as seen through the 1960’s science fiction which featured E.T. life forms such as (1) Mr. Spock from Star Trek who was from planet Vulcan which orbits around Epsilon Eridani, and (2) Barbarella, a space traveler who crash landed on Tau Ceti’s 16th planet.