Researchers working with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) believe that we'll soon be able to answer the question whether we are alone in the universe or not.
"It's unproven whether there is any life beyond Earth," Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, said at a House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing. "I think that situation is going to change within everyone's lifetime in this room."
A team of scientists recently spent 36 hours listening in when planets in targeted solar systems lined up, data collected by NASA's Kepler space telescope, in hopes of detecting alien radio signals.
"We think the right strategy in SETI is a variety of strategies. It's really hard to predict what other civilizations might be doing," said Dan Werthimer, director of SETI research at the University of California Berkeley, according to Discovery News.
Click here to download a copy of Werthimer's remarks at the committee meeting.
The idea to look for aligned planets came after receiving "a flood" of data collected by NASA's Kepler telescope, which launched in 2009 to search for Earth-sized planets that are the right temperature for liquid water.
Kepler scientists have already added 962 confirmations and 3,845 candidates to a list of 1,792 planets discovered beyond the solar system, according to Discovery News.
"At least a half-dozen other worlds besides Earth that might have life are in our solar system. The chances of finding it, I think, are good, and if that happens, it'll happen in the next 20 years, depending on the financing," astrobiologist Seth Shostak said before a committee, according to The Space Reporter.
SETI programs use the largest radio and optical telescopes in the world to find evidence of advanced civilizations and their technology on far away planets, according to the release.
During the hearing on May 22, Werthimer, of the University of California, Berkeley, outlined current projects to find intelligent life on other planets.
"The Kepler mission has given us a ton of multiplanet systems to look at," said Werthimer's colleague Andrew Siemion, according to the Discovery News.
Siemion, a graduate student and SETI scientist, created a computer program to predict when extrasolar planets would line up with Earth and the team wrote proposals for observing time on radio telescopes.
"This is the first time in history we have had such specific and accurate information about other planetary systems and had the opportunity to consider how we could use it to improve the efficacy of our searches," Siemion added.
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