US astronomers launched new search for alien life yesterday
SETI has moved from using the fixed Arecibo Telescope to the huge steerable Green Bank Telescope to listen for life.
This new Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence started yesterday, when the giant Green Bank Dish started gathering 24 hours of data from each one of 86 pre-chosen planets.
These 86 planets have already been identified as possible habitable systems by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope.
Although its not absolutely certain that these Planets have a life system. the Green Bank Telescope can scan 300 times the range of frequencies that Arecibo could, meaning that it can collect the same amount of data in one day, that Arecibo could in one year!
Picture of the worlds largest land-based movable structure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bank_TelescopeThis SETI search employs the largest fully steerable radio telescope on the planet, and is the most sensitive radio telescope in the world capable of undertaking a search of this kind.
The project will likely take about a year to complete, and will be helped by a team of 1 million at-home astronomers known as 'SETI@home' users, who will help process the data on their personal computers.
