科学一刻 探寻外星人

　　The Parkes Telescope in Australia will be part of the Breakthrough Listen project.

　　Future Breakthrough

　　The National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope will be part of the Breakthrough Listen project’s search for alien life. They’re going to scan the nearest million stars in our own galaxy, and stars in 100 other galaxies for radio signals of advanced civilizations. About 20 percent of the annual observing time on the telescope will be dedicated to the search over the next ten years. The Parkes Telescope in Australia will also be part of the project. Breakthrough Listen will also join with “SETI at Home” through the University of California, Berkeley.

　　Power In Numbers

　　SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and is the program using millions of volunteers around the world who donate their spare computer power to search the astronomical data. Collectively, the volunteers constitute one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Breakthrough Listen is 50 times more sensitive and will cover 10 times more of the sky than previous searches. Along with the radio search, the Automated Planet Finder Telescope in California will search for optical laser transmissions. All the software is open source. Both the software and the hardware used in the Breakthrough Listen project will be compatible with other telescopes around the world, so that anyone can join the search.