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by Mark D. Stewart
SINCE NOV. 20, a handful of computer users have been testing a program called SETI@home as part of a project to enlist Internet users in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI. For almost 40 years, SETI researchers have pointed radio telescopes toward the skies, looking for a cosmic ìhello,î most likely a clear, consistent signal amid interstellar static and terrestrial interference.
The SETI@home plan calls for data from the 1,000-foot Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the worldís largest radio telescope, to be carved into manageable chunks and distributed over the Internet to personal computers equipped with special software. The software works like a screen-saver, waiting for idle time on the computer or running in the background continuously. On each computer, the SETI@home program would analyze its particular downloaded chunk of data for the telltale signature of an intentional broadcast. The analysis would then be uploaded. According to SETI@home, signals that are is "louder" than known radio-frequency interference (RFI), or background noise, and also signals that rise and fall in 12 seconds - the time the telescope takes to pass over a spot in the sky. Any promising signals would be flagged for further analysis by experts.
For more information on SETI@home or to download the software, visit http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/.
