SETI The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence

What is it? The mission of SETI is to explore and understand the origin of our life in the universe. The SETI Institute is a private, non-profit organisation dedicated to scientific research. The institute was founded in Today it employs over 150 scientists. The general approach of SETI is to survey the sky and try to detect the existence of transmissions coming from a possible civilisation on a distant planet.

Radio telescopes Radio telescopes are used to collect and track data from satellites. They can produce images of objects in space that would have been missed by an optical telescope. Optical telescopes need light to produce an image, as radio telescopes don’t. Most radio telescopes use a dish-shaped reflector to collect radio waves from space. The reflector focuses the waves onto an antenna, that changes them into electric signals.

Parkes Radio Telescope The Parkes Radio Telescope is so famous because of its reception of Neil Armstrong’s 1969 Moon landing. The telescope measures a diameter of 64 metres. It has been operating since 1961.

Australian Radio Telescopes None of Australia’s radio telescopes are in Victoria. Most are toward the middle of the country, with the exception of Mt. Pleasant Radio Observatory, in Tasmania. I think they are all here because the centre of the country is barely populated, and therefore would be out of the way.

My Opinion Do I think life will be found outside Earth? The answer to that question is yes. I do think that eventually we will have the technology to find any form of living thing, whether it is alien, human, animal, bug, microscopic animal, plant, etc. As far as I’m concerned, there is life out there; but only tiny little things like bacteria and little bugs.