by Sarah Scoles
Jill with Jodie Foster. Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Francois Duhamel.
The process of building a “Large Number of Small Dishes” (LNSD) array is a process of starting with commercially available materials and then optimizing. The Production Test Array. Image courtesy of Seth Shostak.
A dish is assembled from pieces in the construction tent. Image courtesy of Dave DeBoer.
A dish being attached to its pedestal in the field. Image courtesy of Dave DeBoer.
Image courtesy of SETI Institute REU Program.
The Allen Telescope Array. Images courtesy of Seth Shostak.
The Allen Telescope Array. Images courtesy of Seth Shostak.
Four men who have supported SETI and Jill throughout the years: John Billingham. Image courtesy of Seth Shostak.
Barney Oliver. Image courtesy of Hewlett-Packard.
Frank Drake. Image © Roger Ressmeyer, Getty images.
Jack Welch, Image courtesy of Seth Shostak.
A blended family. Jill and Jack wed in 1980. Images courtesy of Jill Tarter.
Back L-R: Jeanette Welch, Leslie Welch, Sandy Schniewind, Marni Welch, Shana Tarter. Front L-R: Mark Abbott, Jill, Jack, Eric Welch. Images courtesy of Jill Tarter.
Eric and Marni Welch. Courtesy of Mark Abbott.
Clara Welch. Courtesy of Mark Abbott.
Leslie Welch and Mark Abbott. Courtesy of Mark Abbott.
Craig Kletzing and Jeanette Welch. Courtesy of Mark Abbott.
Steve Platz, Li Platz, and Shana Tarter. Courtesy of Shana Tarter.
Jill Tarter and Jack Welch. Courtesy of Mark Abbott.
Carrier and sideband signals from Pioneer 10. Images courtesy of SETI Institute—Project Phoenix.
Carrier and sideband signals from Pioneer 10. Images courtesy of SETI Institute—Project Phoenix.
RFI from SOHO.
Computers do the work, but hands can help explain it.
Jill at Parkes with Lee Hendricks. Image courtesy of CSIRO/ATNF.
Jill at ATA with Jack and Steve Trimberger. Image courtesy of Barbara Vance.
Working at the Phoenix Project. Image courtesy of Seth Shostak.
Working at the Phoenix Project. Image courtesy of Ly Ly.
Working at the Phoenix Project. Image courtesy of Seth Shostak.
Working at the Phoenix Project. Image courtesy of Jane Jordan.
Working at the Phoenix Project. Image courtesy of Jane Jordan.
Life after breast cancer. Images courtesy of Seth Shostak.
Life after breast cancer. Images courtesy of Seth Shostak.
Jack’s retirement—everybody samba! Image courtesy of Jill Tarter.
Jill with her granddaughter, Li. Image courtesy of Shana Tarter.
Original and new cooled Antonio feeds. Image courtesy of Seth Shostak.
Original work inside the antennas. Image courtesy of Matt Fleming.
Jill retires at SETI Institute. Image courtesy of Seth Shostak.
Time to do something different, and time to continue what we started. Images courtesy of Jill Tarter.
Time to do something different, and time to continue what we started. Images courtesy of Jill Tarter.
A TIMELINE OF SETI
1959
Guiseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison publish the first scholarly SETI paper, in the journal Nature.
1960
Frank Drake performs the first SETI search—called Project Ozma—with a radio telescope in Green Bank, WV.
1961
The National Academy of Sciences convenes the Order of the Dolphin meeting in Green Bank, WV, using the Drake Equation as an agenda.
1970
NASA’s Ames Research Center undertakes the Project Cyclops study.
1971
Project Cyclops is published, and the first joint US/USSR SETI meeting happens in Burykan, Armenia.
1974
NASA establishes the Office of Interstellar Communication under John Billingham.
1977
NASA publishes its Workshops on Interstellar Communication.
1979
Senator William Proxmire gives his Golden Fleece Award to SETI.
1981
Senator Proxmire cancels funding for NASA’s nascent SETI program.
1982
The federal government reinstates SETI’s funding, and Suitcase SETI observations begin.
1989
Scientists create the “post-detection protocol”: “Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence.”
1993
Senator Bryan terminates NASA SETI funding. Scientists discover the first planets beyond our solar system, around a pulsar.
1995
Project Phoenix observations begin at Parkes and Mopra Observatories in Australia. Astronomers discover planet Peg 51b, the first around a Sun-like star.
1996
Project Phoenix observations begin in Green Bank, WV, and Woodbury, GA.
1998
Project Phoenix observations begin at Arecibo and Jodrell Bank. Astronomers perform the first optical SETI observations at Harvard and Berkeley.
2000
Paul Allen funds technology development for the Allen Telescope Array.
2003
Paul Allen funds the first phase of construction for the Allen Telescope Aray.
2007
Engineers install the 42nd and final dish at the Allen Telescope Array, which is then dedicated.
2009
Radio science and SETI observations begin full-time at the Allen Telescope Array. Tarter wins the TED Prize.
2011
The University of California, Berkeley, ends its partnership in the Allen Telescope Array, and SRI becomes the operating partner with the SETI Institute. The Kepler Space Telescope releases its first batch of exoplanet data.
FURTHER READING
Billingham, John. Social Implications of the Detection of an Extraterrestrial Civilization: A Report of the Workshops on the Cultural Aspects of SETI. Mountain View, CA: SETI, 1999.
Billings, Lee. Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life among the Stars. New York: Current, 2013.
Cameron, A. G. W. Interstellar Communication. New York, Amsterdam: W. A. Benjamin, 1963.
Cultures beyond Earth: The Role of Anthropology in Outer Space. New York: Vintage, 1977.
Davies, P. C. W. The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.
Dick, Steven J. The Impact of Discovering Life beyond Earth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
———. Life on Other Worlds: The 20th-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
———. Many Worlds: The New Universe, Extraterrestrial Life, and the Theological Implications. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2001.
Dick, Steven J., and Mark Lupisella. Cosmos and Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of External Relations, History Division, 2009.
Dick, Steven J., and James Edgar Strick. The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004.
Ekers, Ronald D., and Philip Morrison. SETI 2020: A Roadmap for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Mountain View, CA: SETI, 2002.
Fields-Meyer, Thomas. “The Searchers.” People 52, no. 13 (October 4, 1999).
Finney, B. “SETI, Consilience, and the Unity of Knowledge.” Bioastronomy ’99: A New Era in Bioastronomy, Conference Series 213. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2000.
Garber, S. J. “Searching for Good Science: The Cancellation of NASA’s SETI Program.” Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 52, no. 1 (1999): 3–12.
Grinspoon, David. Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2016.
Gulkis, S., E. T. Olsen, and J. C. Tarter. “A Bimoda
l Search Strategy for SETI,” in Strategies for the Search for Life in the Universe, ed. M. D. Papagiannis. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1981.
Harrison, Albert A. “The Relative Stability of Belligerent and Peaceful Societies: Implications for SETI.” Acta Astronautica 46, no. 10–12 (2000): 707–712.
———. After Contact. New York: Basic, 2002.
Impey, Chris. The Living Cosmos: Our Search for Life in the Universe. New York: Random House, 2007.
Irion, Robert. “What Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Did for—and to—Science.” Scientist 2, no. 23 (December 12, 1988).
Kaufman, Marc. First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life beyond Earth. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011.
Miller, Ben. The Aliens Are Coming! The Extraordinary Science behind Our Search for Life in the Universe. New York: Experiment, 2016.
Morrison, Philip, John Billingham, and John Wolfe. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2011.
Nagel, Thomas. “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” Philosophical Review 83, no. 4 (1974): 435.
Oliver, Bernard. Project Cyclops. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1973.
Poundstone, William. Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
Sagan, Carl. Contact: A Novel. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.
Sagan, Carl, and I. S. Shklovski. Intelligent Life in the Universe. New York: Doubleday, 1980.
Scharf, Caleb. The Copernicus Complex. New York: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.
Schuch, Paul H. Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: SETI Past, Present, and Future. New York: Springer, 2011.
Schwartz, Peter. The Art of the Long View. New York: Doubleday/Currency, 1991.
Shostak, G. Seth. Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2009.
Sobel, Dava. Is Anyone Out There? The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. New York: Pocket, 1997.
———. The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. New York: Viking, 2016.
Swift, David W. SETI Pioneers: Scientists Talk about Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Tucson: University of Arizona, 1990.
Tarter, Jill. “SETI Observations Worldwide,” in The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, ed. K. I. Kellerman and G. A. Seielstad. Green Bank, WV: NRAO, 1985.
Tarter, Jill, and M. Michaud. “SETI Post-detection Protocol.” 37th and 38th Conferences of the IAF. International Astronomical Federation, 1987.
Tough, Allen. When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-Information Contact. Bellevue, WA: Foundation for the Future, 2000.
Vakoch, Douglas A. Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of Communications, History Program Office, 2014.
———. Psychology of Space Exploration: Contemporary Research in Historical Perspective. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2011.
White, Frank. The SETI Factor: How the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Is Changing Our View of the Universe and Ourselves. New York: Walker, 1990.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank my family—Darla, Ron, Rachel, and Rebekah—for everything; my grandparents, Eleanor and Floyd Kinney, for indulging me in big conversations when I was little; Brooke Napier, for unconditional support and strategic frozen yogurt; Ann Martin and Joshua Kinne, for their insights and deep friendship; everyone in Green Bank, for being astronomical badasses; Tasha Eichenseher, Breanna Draxler, Lisa Raffensperger, and Siri Carpenter, for helping me shape the book when it was a proto-idea; Miriam Kramer, for being my space friend; Christopher Kempf and Matthew Grice, for being my writing buddies; Dana Koster and Justin Souza, for the cheerleading and the cabin; Amber Dermont, for teaching me that I wanted to write stories; Chris Depree and Amy Lovell, for teaching me astronomy; Kim Dahl, my sixth-grade science teacher, for showing me what inquiry means; Jane Cooper, my high school English teacher, for all the sentence diagrams and smart jokes; the Cornell MFA program, for giving me a toolbox; Katie Palmer and Adam Rogers, for giving me a shot; my secret science-writer chat groups, for existing; the SETI Institute interns, for letting me tag along; Chris Neller, for letting me in to the SETI Institute and keeping immaculate records; Karen Randall, for the jumpstart; Vera Buescher, for keeping track of all the politics; Carl Sagan, for Contact; the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods, Melody Keen Haller, and Michael Tyler, for giving me much-needed months to just write; Rusty Barnes and Austin Martin, for sharing their house; Reva, my dog, for the companionship and also her face; Jessica Case and Pegasus Books, for editing this book and making it happen; Zoe Sandler, my agent, for being a champion; Jack Welch, for putting up with my regular appearances in his living room; and Jill Tarter, for sharing her life.
INDEX
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
A
Active SETI, 5, 9. See also SETI
Agrawal, Avinash, 235
Alien-hunting telescope, 93–103
Allen, Paul, 72–76, 78–79, 187
Allen Telescope Array (ATA), 5–11, 69–91, 93–103, 109–112, 219–221, 228–230, 235–237, 248, 257
Alpha Centauri, 102, 247, 250
Alvarez, Luis, 134–136
Alvarez, Walter, 134–136
Ames Research Center, 6, 23, 81, 108–109, 113, 123, 141–142, 151–153, 170, 188, 211, 222–224, 247, 252
Anders, Bill, 34, 81
Anderson, Chris, 229–231, 235
Antonio, Franklin, 98–99
Apollo, 190
Arecibo Observatory, 6, 8, 101, 175–176, 188, 244
Arecibo Radio Telescope, 43, 177, 203–205
Arrival, 223
Asteroids, 25, 135–136
Astrobiology, 99, 106, 193, 208, 221–223, 254
Astrometry, 214
Astronomy, 4
Astrophysical Journal, 69
B
Back to the Future, 78, 121
Backus, Peter, 13, 166–167, 170–171, 176
Bacteria, 210
Ballard, Robert, 210
Band waves, 6
Bandwidth, 6
Batalha, Natalie, 13–14, 217, 222–225, 254–255
Baum, L. Frank, 60
Beasley, Tony, 99–100, 248
Berkner, Lloyd, 61
Bethe, Hans, 45–46
Bidwell, Debbie, 82–83
Big Bang, 24, 181
Billingham, John, 14, 105–106, 112, 123, 128, 134, 139, 142–143, 151–152, 177
BIMA array, 78
Biosignatures, 106
Black, David, 14, 124, 220
Black holes, 52–54, 78, 99–100, 126, 146, 149
“Black smokers,” 210, 213, 218
Blueshift, 6
Bock, Douglas, 72
Borucki, William, 14, 81, 155, 215–218
Bowyer, Stuart, 14, 55–56, 66, 68, 105, 106, 123
Branson, Richard, 189
Breakthrough Foundation, 247
Breakthrough initiatives, 6, 247–249, 250
Breakthrough Listen project, 6, 8, 247–249
Breakthrough Message program, 6, 247
Breakthrough Starshot, 6, 247
Brin, David, 14, 238, 239, 240, 243
Broad, William, 202, 203
Brock, Thomas, 210
Brooks, Kate, 52
Brown dwarfs, 45, 67, 112, 123
Bryan, Richard, 15, 171–173, 178, 180
Burbidge, Margaret, 156–157
Burke-Spolaor, Sarah, 101
Bush, George W., 246
C
Calvin, Melvin, 63
Carbon detection, 211–212
Catmull, Ed, 140
>
Challenger, 179
Clark, Tom, 125–129
Clarke, Arthur, 252
Classical and Quantum Gravity Journal, 163
Clinton, Bill, 212
Cocconi, Giuseppe, 15, 58–60, 62
Cohen, Jim, 146
Columbus, Christopher, 141
Combat Zones That See project, 251
Confessions of an Alien Hunter, 202, 238
Contact, 2–3, 6, 76, 81, 91, 121, 144, 149–150, 204–205, 223, 229, 256
Conte, Silvio, 171
Cooper, Danese, 235
Corliss, Jack, 210
Cornell, Betty, 15, 29, 36–37, 42, 197–199
Cornell, Dick, 15, 28–31
Cornell, Ezra, 37
Cornell, Jill, 26–42. See also Tarter, Jill
Corson, Dale, 42–43
Cosmos, 134, 136, 245