Alien Search: Help Slumping Nonprofit SETI Institute In Space Research

Just when scientists are making advancements in searching for extraterrestrial life beyond Earth, a lack of funds is putting a cap on their telescopes.

The nonprofit SETI Institute sent an email to its supporters saying a drop in both government and private funds means the northern California facility no longer has the $1.5 million a year needed to operate.

Last week, the science research institute's Allen Telescope Array was put into a hibernation state. Since 2007, the radio dishes had scanned space for signals from alien civilizations, according to the Associated Press.

In a blog for HuffPost, Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the institute, says during tough economic times, some may scoff at the importance of exploring the universe. But he's asking for help in resuscitating the program, making the case for discovery.

"The answer is that discovering new things is what distinguishes our species...Are we destined to merely endure, or to flourish?"

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the turn of events comes just after the announcement from astronomers this spring, who said 1,235 new possible planets had been observed.

Fifty or 60 of those planets appear be habitable, Shostak told the Associated Press.

"There's plenty of cosmic real estate that looks promising," he added. "We've lost the instrument that's best for zeroing in on these better targets."

Shostak told the Mercury News the project's suspension is like "the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria being put into dry dock."

The telescopes are named for Microsoft co-founded Paul Allen, who donated millions of dollars for the project. A spokesman for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation said it had no immediate plans to provide more funding to the facility, according to the Associated Press.

The SETI Institute is seeking public help. Click below to donate to its science research.

Comments

[Jake Halstrom]

05:31 PM on 05/18/2011

A UFO I filmed: https://sites.google.com/site/alienufocraft/

[JaxReader]

12:46 PM on 05/16/2011

The greatest evidence that intelligent alien life exists, is precisely that they have not tried to contact us.

[dewachen81]

10:47 AM on 05/16/2011

Either our government has technology far beyond what its citizens know, or aliens have been here a long time because my entire family witnessed one land very close to us April 22, 1974 which was 4 years after earth day began April 22, 1970. This craft was saucer shaped close to a hundred yards in diameter and when it took off after landing did things I don’t think we had the technology to do in 1974. We were also close enough to feel a static electric field from the craft and there were 15 to 20 cars that pulled off the road to witness this south of Ione, CA.

[Museum of Alien Studies]

01:15 AM on 05/12/2011

As a global community, we are focused on searching for extraterrestrial life in physical form, but could there be alien life that exists at higher frequencies that cannot be seen with the naked eye (or telescopes)? In fact, there is extraterrestrial electromagnetic life (light energy bodies) that already exists on Earth. We are studying and decoding this alien life at the Museum of Alien Studies in Taiwan. To learn more, please visit http://www.museumofalienstudies.wordpress.com or Facebook: Museum of Alien Studies.

[bkerensa]

05:53 PM on 05/05/2011

Seti@Home and The Seti Institute are good programs that have contributed so much to other scientific research.

[mamacat]

05:21 AM on 05/04/2011

If ETs wanted us to know about their presence, we would.

That we have not "discovered" aliens speaks more about their desire not to be noticed, and our inability to pierce their "stealth" devices -- in my opinion.

I am reminded of the Star Trek movie where-in Data and other Federation explorers live in close to proximity to the indigenous humans, without being seen, except when a cloaking device malfunctions. Or, as in Doctor Who, with Aliens possessing the ability to cloak themselves by controlling most peoples' minds. SETI's efforts to find life by searching for radio signals from distant solar systems may be misguided, if we find out that ETs have been walking among us, hidden, for a long time.

[corwin]

03:57 PM on 05/03/2011

There are two points I want to make.First,there isn't an unlimited amount of money.Even for Micro Soft.Second.Enrico Fermi

[anti politricks]

03:27 PM on 05/03/2011

thanks for the great photo hufpo.

i feel like it takes away from the article and SETI institute.

[Netflyer]

12:57 PM on 05/02/2011

"The San Jose Mercury News reports that the turn of events comes just after the announcement from astronomers this spring, who said 1,235 new possible planets had been observed.

Fifty or 60 of those planets appear be habitable, Shostak told the Associated Press."

I'm a huge supporter of NASA and SETI, however this above statement is just NOT TRUE. I want us to find ET as much as the next guy, maybe even more, however seeing a decent spectral signature that may be possible to support life does not mean 50-60 of these planets appear to be habitable.... And, if they did there are other arrays around the Earth that can focus on those planets. Paleeeze, don't stretch the truth in these matters, it's hard enough to convince people that this is a worthy study to fund!

[Tunghoy]

08:56 AM on 05/02/2011

Oh come on, everybody, what's more important -- the single greatest discovery in human history or an economy-rocketing one dollar tax cut to needy billionaires? Let's get our priorities straight!

[corwin]

03:59 PM on 05/03/2011

Please consider Enrico Fermi.

[wwilcox]

07:01 PM on 05/01/2011

Seti would do quite well on a reduced budget if they would focus on the Tea Party. You don't need a multi-million dollar telescope to find aliens in that crowd. And if they would document them, they would be doing us all a favor.

[corwin]

04:00 PM on 05/03/2011

Wow .Pretty clever.You'll be a Shift Captain someday

[Startreklivz]

06:40 PM on 05/01/2011

The fact that SETI and NASA are suffering funding cuts indicates that the conspiracy theorists who believe in UFOs and Roswell are wrong: if there had been contact between the USA and aliens, NASA & SETI would have a Pentagon-sized budget

[ChronicAnhedoniac]

04:24 PM on 05/02/2011

Startreklivz, might I suggest you do some reading in this area? I'd start with Leslie Kean's book, "UFO's: Pilots, Generals and Government Officials Go On the Record." There is a tremendous amount of good UFO data out there that people just ignore, because (like you) they've been taught that UFO's belong in that same category of mythology as ghosts and goblins. (The UFO nuts who embrace every photo and abduction story do not help.)

However, there are literally many hundreds of cases where incredibly-performing, solid *objects* are tracked on radar at the same time as they're observed by multiple witnesses. (Often pilots, police officers, or Air Force personnel.) The Air Force's own files (used in the official Project Blue Book) contain incredible cases of this sort. You might find "Science In Default" by Dr. James McDonald (physicist, U.Az.) rather interesting. One sentence:

"[t]he UFO that the Venom first tried to intercept was being monitored via three distinct physical “sensing channels.” It was being recorded by ground radar, by airborne radar, and visually. Many scientists are entirely unaware that Air Force files contain such UFO cases; for this very interesting category has never been stressed in USAF discussions of its UFO records."

Please, I ask you to educate yourself about this topic before you dismiss it entirely. Uninformed comments on this topic only perpetuate ignorance, and they contribute to the atmosphere of ridicule that often surrounds even very credible witnesses.

[falco]

06:32 PM on 05/01/2011

I guess all those inter-dimensional beings in the religious texts around the world went away after the pen was put down - when the chapters were done being written.

[Justin Stamper]

06:19 PM on 05/01/2011

"Shostak told the Mercury News the project's suspension is like "the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria being put into dry dock.""

I'm sure the Native Americans who lived here first would have appreciated that.

[Startreklivz]

06:42 PM on 05/01/2011

A number of physicists and other scientists believe that anonymity is Earth's best hope: even if we encounter benign aliens, look at what the introduction of European diseases and cultures did to Native Americans, Polynesians, etc. And if they're not benign, but profit-seeking capitalists -- we could end up being the Aztec slaves.

[Tunghoy]

08:54 AM on 05/02/2011

There's a big difference between detecting life on other planets and sending a big how-do-you-do. SETI is passive detection; they're listening, not broadcasting. Radio waves and photons from other planets will come our way whether or not we look or them.

[MISTERUNCONVENTIONAL]

06:16 PM on 05/01/2011

If I wanted to find aliens I'd skip all the expensive and time-consuming radio astronomy and run an ad on Craigslist.

[DaMojo]

10:46 AM on 05/02/2011

You're confusing aliens with mutants. hehe