A gigantic radio telescope in Virginia has started listening to 86 Earth-like planet candidates identified by the Kepler Space Telescope, hoping to hear signs of alien life.
Astronomers aren’t even sure the stars to which they are listening actually harbor planets, let alone radio-communicating extraterrestrials, but hey, we might as well bend an ear, right?
The SETI Institute is looking at Earth-like (rocky) planets with a focus on those with temperatures between 0 and 100 °C (32° and 212 °F), where liquid water can exist.
As far as our Earth-biased science can tell us, that’s a crucial ingredient for life.
Search For Aliens Should Include Intelligent Machines, Says SETI Astronomer Tags Technology, Rebecca Boyle, earth-like, exoplanets, Kepler, kepler space telescope, radio telescopes, search for extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI, seti@home SETI has been listening to parts of the sky for decades, but pointing directly at Kepler findings stands among the project’s best-informed attempts yet.
The Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico looks at stars like the sun, hoping they might have planets around them.
