After nearly four decades of of listening for for signs of life in the cosmos, astronomer Jill Tarter is one of a handful of true experts on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). And since 1995 we’ve known for certain there are other planets out there; the goal now is to find one that’s habitable.
“Exoplanets are real,” Tarter said recently, talking about how the Kepler planet-hunting mission has changed the concept of SETI. “We are now observing stars where we KNOW there are planets. We’ve gone from having 20-30 potential targets to having thousands of targets. Kepler is telling us WHERE to look, and we are focusing there.”
But so far the search has come up empty. After so long with no luck, why continue? Tarter recently appeared on PBS’s “Secret Lives of Scientists”
and she gave them an answer in less than 30 seconds.
Anyone can be an underachiever, even if you're an astronomical singularity weighing over four billion…
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) was designed to examine the Sun, but as a…
Measuring the distance to far away objects in space can be tricky. We don't even…
On September 26th, 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collided with the asteroid Dimorphos,…
Universe Today has had some fantastic discussions with researchers on the importance of studying impact…
Since its launch in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made some amazing…