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Goal: To understand intelligent life in our universe.

Explore the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and their plans for the future. Learn about SETI's funding, what they look for, how you can help with SETI@Home, and the possibilities of finding intelligent life in our universe.

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Goal: To understand intelligent life in our universe.

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  1. Goal: To understand intelligent life in our universe. Objectives: To examine The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) To learn about what SETI plans on doing in the future

  2. Intelligent life • There is an agency that is searching for intelligent life: • SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence).

  3. How much $$ does SETI get from the US government each year? • A) about $100 billion • B) about $10 billion • C) about $1 billion • D) about $100 million • E) < $10 million

  4. SETI funding • Government contribution: • $0 • Nil • Notta • Private/Corporate donations • The Rest

  5. Funds Used: • To buy more radio telescopes • To buy telescope time • To hire astronomers and astrobiologists • Some outreach (student research) • Contributions to projects such as the Kepler mission

  6. What does SETI look for? • SETI scours the radio section of the electromagnetic spectrum. • SETI tries to find signals that could not occur naturally. • Some examples include beamed transmission, repeated patterns, very narrow band emission, or anything else that can only be created intentionally by an alien civilization.

  7. Optical SETI • Looking for laser beams. • Only work if they are targeting us • Why do we think that might be, well we have targeted others

  8. You can help • SETI@Home allows you to use your computer during down time to help SETI process their data

  9. Weekly talks • They eventually post online (seti.org)

  10. Suppose we find life, then what? • If it is unintelligent life – we can do NOTHING! • Lets suppose we sent a craft to the alpha Centauri system at a speed of 0.1 c. • It would take 43 years to get there… • The large distances make interplanetary travel unlikely for a long time – and even then very impractical.

  11. How far away will life be? • Do figure this one out we will use what is called the Drake Equation. • The Drake Equation is just a giant unit conversion basically… • There are a few forms to it. • We will be examining an offshoot here…

  12. How many stars are in the Milky Way galaxy? • A) 4 billion • B) 40 billion • C) 400 billion • D) 4 trillion

  13. What fraction of those are like our sun? • A) 100% • B) 10% • C) 1% • D) 0.1% • E) 0.01%

  14. What fraction of those have planets? • A) 100% • B) 10% • C) 1% • D) 0.1% • E) 0.01%

  15. # of planets in habitable zone • For our solar system that number is 3

  16. What fraction of those have actually develop life? • A) 100% • B) 10% • C) 1% • D) 0.1% • E) 0.01%

  17. What fraction of those have develop intelligent life? • A) 100% • B) 10% • C) 1% • D) 0.1% • E) 0.01%

  18. What fraction of those develop and utilize (intentionally or unintentionally)? • A) 100% • B) 10% • C) 1% • D) 0.1% • E) 0.01%

  19. Fraction of planet time they communicate • How long do they communicate before • A) they go extinct, or reverse tech • B) they decide to not transmit anymore • C) advance tech so that we can no longer get/understand their transmissions Fraction is that time / 5 billion

  20. So, we have a number of expected civilizations! • But how far are they from us? • Lets take the volume of the galaxy ~16 trillion cubic light years and divide by the number of civilizations • Now we take the cube root of that for the average distance. • Now, if we travel at 10% the speed of light when do we get there?

  21. Conclusion • We have explored the SETI group which is currently searching for life in our universe • We have seen where SETI is going

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