“Looking for a fish in the ocean by taking a glass of water”, this is how North American astronomer Jill Tarter sees humanity’s current efforts in the search for extraterrestrial life.
The former director of the SETI project (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) was considered one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine in 2004 and served as inspiration for the character of Dr. Elanor Arroway played by Jodie Foster in the movie “Contact”, based on Carl Sagan’s book.
“Our star, the Sun, is just one of 400 billion other stars in our galaxy alone, the Milky Way. And our galaxy is just one of more than 1 trillion other galaxies detected by space telescopes like Hubble in observable universe,” said Tarter.
Knowing the difficulty, however, does not take away the astronomer’s optimism.
After helping to develop the Allen Telescope Array, an interferometer that uses distortions in radio waves to measure distances and angles of space objects, she is now planning a campaign to raise funds to improve the tool.
“We have designed a second generation of fantastic receivers that will make the equipment much more sensitive,” said Tarter.
Another reason to be excited is a new initiative, the “SETI Laser”.
“We’re going to build an array of 96 cameras, spread across 12 locations around the globe, working with optics and infrared. We’ll literally be able to look at the sky all the time to see if there are any flashes of light. To see any other phenomenon, like fast radio bursts, we have the optical component. I’m very excited about that,” explains Tarter.
With so much news, and many more to come, she believes that we will find life outside Earth before the end of the century.
“We can find out. Find a biomarker on planets and moons in our Solar System or locate artifacts as we explore. Or, perhaps, we can detect the product of the technological work of other civilizations,” says Tarter.
