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Definition: SETI from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

In astronomy, any of various attempts to search the skies for extraterrestrial signals using powerful radio telescopes or optical telescopes. Although serious SETI projects date from 1960, the name is specifically associated with a programme originally launched by NASA in 1992. NASA cancelled its project in 1993, but other privately funded SETI programmes continue.

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Search for Extraterrestrial Life and SETI

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SETI League: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence


Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

From Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a scientific endeavor that draws widespread and constant public attention. Media coverage of SETI has been plentiful since scientists first began to talk about it, and SETI scientists pay closeattention to what journalists say about their work. In the 19th century, astronomers first learned to record the spectra of celestial objects and found that they were made of the same stuff as things on Earth, including the elements of which life is made. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution gave further weight to the idea of life as originating as a result of natural processes. In the mid-20th century, radio astronomy was invented. Ever since, SETI scientists have been searching for signals of extraterrestrial technological origin. The standard SETI technique is to use ground-based radio telescopes coupled with specially developed multichannel signal processors to listen for and identify signals originating from extraterrestrial technology. …
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Full text Article Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The quest to find evidence for intelligent beings living on a planet other than our own. The title ‘Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence’ (or SETI) has been applied to a number of projects since 1960 when Dr Frank Drake, one of the new breed of radio astronomers working at Green Bank, West…
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Full text Article SETI

From Astronomy Encyclopedia
SETI  Shown here is the  SETI @home project...
Acronym for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, the umbrella term for all endeavours, especially those using radio telescopes, to find signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. SETI assumes that life exists on some EXTRASOLAR PLANETS ; a small percentage of that life is sufficiently…
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Full text Article Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)

From Science Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia of Space and Astronomy
A simulated signal from an extraterrestrial...
The major aim of SETI programs is to listen for evidence of radio frequency (microwave) signals generated by intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations. This search is an attempt to answer an important philosophical question: Are we alone in the universe? The classic paper by Giuseppe Cocconi and…
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Full text Article search for extraterrestrial intelligence

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
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Full text Article SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)

From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin
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Full text Article GRAVITATIONAL LENS

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
No biographical data available No biographical data available “I know perfectly well that at this moment the whole universe is listening to us,” Jean Giraudoux wrote in The Madwoman of Chaillot, “and that every word we say echoes to the remotest star.” That poetic paranoia is a perfect description…
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Full text Article extraterrestrial intelligence

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The term used to describe intelligent life which may exist on planets other than our own. The existence of planets circling stars other than the sun is now proven. However, scientists have been searching, without success, for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence since the 1930s (see search for…
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Full text Article Project Cyclops

From Science Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia of Space and Astronomy
A very large array of dish antennas proposed for use in a detailed search of the radio frequency spectrum (especially the 18- to 21-centimeter wavelength “water hole”) for interstellar signals from intelligent alien civilizations. The engineering details of this SETI (search for extraterrestrial…
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In the continuing search for life and evidence of...
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, is a fascinating enterprise that has captured the imaginations of creative thinkers for generations. For a long time, SETI was not considered mainstream science by most people. Today, though much of the worldwide conversation on SETI remains in…
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Full text Article Hellas

From Science Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia of Space and Astronomy
A quantity of information (plural: Hellades) corresponding to ten billion (1 x 10 10 ) bits—more or less the amount of information we know about ancient Greece. The term derives from the name for Greece, which is Hellas. This interesting (though arbitrary) measure of information content was first…
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