Astronomy › Section W · Life in the universe › Topic W.3
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence
If anyone out there has built radio transmitters or lasers, we might detect their technology across many light-years. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI, has found no confirmed signal yet, and a simple equation shows why the answer depends on questions nobody can yet settle.
In this topic
- Travel or talk?
- Worked example: the cost of going
- What about UFOs?
- Why radio?
- Radio searches so far
- The cosmic haystack
- The Drake equation
- Worked example: two sets of guesses
- Worked example: how far to the nearest?
- Beyond radio, and should we transmit?
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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