Kimberly W. Land
(757) 864-9885
RELEASE NO. 98-089
Colloquium Reports on Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence
Abstract aliens abound on the movie screens, but in reality we
still don't know if we share our universe with other sentient
creatures, according to astronomer, Dr. Jill Tarter.
Tarter, director, Project Phoenix at the SETI (search for
extraterrestrial intelligence) Institute will speak at a colloquium
Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. in the H.J.E. Reid Conference Center, at
NASA Langley Research Center. Dr. Tarter will give a history of the
work Project Phoenix has done, and their plans for the future.
Since 1995, SETI's Project Phoenix has been using pairs of large
radio telescopes around the world to conduct comprehensive searches
for evidence of signals from other technological civilizations.
They have now examined about half of an initial list of target
stars with sensitivity adequate to detect signals as strong as
their terrestrial radars coming from the most distant targets (155
light years).
Project Phoenix is also conducting a series of internal
workshops designed to provide guidance for the next few decades. In
the near future, project members will build new signal detection
systems at a number of wavelengths and construct novel new arrays
of antennas for continuous observing.
Dr. Tarter is an astronomer and one of the world's leading
researchers in SETI. She is a founder of the SETI Institute in
Mountain View, California, where she is Director of Project
Phoenix, a privately funded search for extraterrestrial life using
radio telescopes. Tarter received a bachelor of engineering physics
from Cornell University and a master's degree and doctorate in
astronomy from the University of California at Berkeley.
A media briefing will be held at 1:15 p.m. in the Wythe Room of
the Reid Conference Center, 14 Langley Boulevard in Hampton. The
general public are invited to the Sigma Series lecture at the
Virginia Air and Space Center later that day, at 7:30 p.m.
Media who wish to attend the briefing should contact Kimberly W.
Land at (757) 864-9885.
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