Sky's Up March - June 2017 | Page 24

How
What
What
What
did you get your job at SETI ?
is your workday like ?
do you use to hunt aliens ?
would be your next step if you found a definite alien signal ?

1

How

2

What

3

What

4

What

did you get your job at SETI ?

I studied radio astronomy in graduate school , and was using large antennas to map the radio emission coming from some large , nearby galaxies . But one night , at 3:00 am , while sitting alone at the observatory , I read an article that pointed out that the same antennas I was using could also be used to look for aliens . That was an intriguing idea , and became more than just an idea when I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area many years later . I was here for less than a year before the folks at the SETI Institute called me up and offered a job .

is your workday like ?

I suspect that a lot of folks figure my workdays are glamorous , or perhaps consist of sitting around with headphones , hoping to hear a signal from space . Neither is true . My days are similar to many other people ’ s I think … dealing with email and phone calls , sitting in lots of meetings , and worrying about finding the money necessary to keep our research going . The “ listening ” is all computerized and automated , so there ’ s not much time spent doing that . Rather , my colleagues and I will discuss how we can make the search either faster or somehow more effective .

do you use to hunt aliens ?

The equipment we use is called the Allen Telescope Array . It ’ s a grouping of 42 small ( 20 feet in diameter ) antennas in California ’ s Cascade Mountains . We also have very sophisticated electronics and computer software for analyzing any signals picked up by these antennas . So there ’ s a lot of hi-tech stuff , and our staff is pretty good at designing and building such things .

would be your next step if you found a definite alien signal ?

We would check it out by making simple technical tests to be sure it wasn ’ t just interference from an orbiting satellite or some other source . Then we would call up someone at another radio telescope , and have them check it out . If it still looked good , we would tell the world .
In their search for extraterrestrial life , SETI astronomers use radio telescopes at the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek , Calif .
Sky ’ s Up
COURTESY OF Seth Shostak 13