10 posts tagged “space”
What is SETI@home?
SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected
computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You
can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes
radio telescope data.
[I first started helping out by installing the BOINC software on my computer years ago. It is very unintrusive and hey you can say you helped out with our *First Contact*!] ~Leicca
The science of SETI@home
SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a scientific area whose goal is to detect intelligent life outside Earth. One approach, known as radio SETI, uses radio telescopes to listen for narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space. Such signals are not known to occur naturally, so a detection would provide evidence of extraterrestrial technology.Radio telescope signals consist primarily of noise (from celestial sources and the receiver's electronics) and man-made signals such as TV stations, radar, and satellites. Modern radio SETI projects analyze the data digitally. More computing power enables searches to cover greater frequency ranges with more sensitivity. Radio SETI, therefore, has an insatiable appetite for computing power.
Previous radio SETI projects have used special-purpose supercomputers, located at the telescope, to do the bulk of the data analysis. In 1995, David Gedye proposed doing radio SETI using a virtual supercomputer composed of large numbers of Internet-connected computers, and he organized the SETI@home project to explore this idea. SETI@home was originally launched in May 1999.
- Learn more about how SETI@home works
- Screensaver graphics explained
- Science newsletters
- Technical news
- Server status
- Science status
- Science links
- Bookstore
- BOINC
- Sponsors
- Glossary of terms
- Future plans
- Photo albums
Papers about SETI@home science and computing:
- SETI@home: An Experiment in Public-Resource Computing (Anderson, et al. 2002)
- SETI@home-Massively distributed computing for SETI (Korpela, et al. 2001)
- A new major SETI project based on Project Serendip data and 100,000 personal computers (Sullivan, et al. 1997)
This seriously gave me chills. The sounds coming through are just not sounds I expected to hear in space... Could it be, perhaps we are closer to finally meeting other life forms?
I am excited at all the possibilites!
August Meteor Shower Will Be 'A Great Show' The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put
on a great show this year, peaking in mid-August with a display of
dozens of shooting stars each hour. The Moon will be out of the way, leaving dark skies
for good viewing as Earth plunges through an ancient stream of comet
debris. Little bits, most no larger than sand grains, will vaporize in
Earth's atmosphere, creating sometimes-dramatic "shooting stars." "It's going to be a great show,"
said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Alabama. "The Moon is new on August 12, which
means no moonlight, dark skies and plenty of meteors." How many? This year the Perseid meteor shower
could deliver one or two visible streaks every minute during peak
times, Cooke said in a statement yesterday. Urban skywatchers will see
fewer due to local light pollution. The meteors in this shower all appear to emanate from
the constellation Perseus. The best times to watch will be late night
Aug. 12 through dawn Aug. 13. "The August Perseids are among the strongest of the
readily observed annual meteor showers, and at maximum activity
nominally yield 90 or 100 meteors per hour," said Joe Rao, SPACE.com's Skywatching columnist. "However, observers with exceptional skies often record even larger numbers." Observing tips To see the show, one need only find a comfortable
spot with a clear view of the northeast horizon, away from local
lights. A dark rural location is best. Lie back on a blanket or lounge
chair and scan the entire sky. In the late evening, starting around 9
p.m. local time, sharp-eyed observers might see "earthgrazing" meteors
that skim the northeast horizon. "Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful," Cooke
said. "They are among the most beautiful of meteors." But don't expect
more than a handful in an hour, he said. Later and during the overnight hours, the shooting stars will be higher in the sky as Perseus rises. Some skywatchers enjoy counting the number of meteors they see per minute, per hour or during a 15-minute interval and comparing notes. Telescopes and binoculars are no help, as the meteors move too swiftly and are best observed with the naked eye. The cosmic rivers of debris have been laid down for millennia by the comet Swift-Tuttle,
which passes through the inner solar system every 130 years. Perseid
meteoroids are exceptionally fast, entering Earth's atmosphere at
roughly 133,200 mph (60 kilometers per second) relative to the planet,
slamming into the air like bugs hitting a windshield.
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 12 July 2007
12:45 pm ET
info gathered from space.com
