In search of an alien galactic Internet

Image credit: NASA

Astronomer Geoff Marcy has received new funding to support his search for extraterrestrial civilizations. Having discovered most of the first extrasolar planets, Marcy is no stranger to seeking out alien worlds. Having been awarded $200,000 by the Templeton Foundation to fund his search for extraterrestrial life, he hopes to use the world's largest telescope, the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, to find evidence of a sophisticated alien communications network.

 The concept is based off of the realization that traditional radio communications simply wouldn't cut it on a galactic level and that attempts to listen out for such signals from an alien civilization are predominantly futile. "The universe is simply too large for there not to be another intelligent civilization out there," said Marcy. "Really, the proper question is: 'How far away is our nearest intelligent neighbour?'


 They could be 10 light-years, 100 light-years, a million light-years or more. We have no idea." In the field of planet hunting, Geoff Marcy is a star. After all, the astronomer at the University of California at Berkeley found nearly three-quarters of the first 100 planets discovered outside our solar system.

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