Re: ET Sighting

Subject:

Comments:
: Hey this is like the X-Files! : : AT CREEK, Calif.--It's easy to spot Jack Welch's airplane as it glides : : past the foothills near this tiny mountain town. It's the only one. : : Hardly anyone lives out this way--just a few thousand locals and a trickle : : of tourists. That's what makes it the perfect spot for what has turned into : : Welch's life work: listening to outer space. : : These days, the UC Berkeley professor's job has become a bit more precise. : : He's the first to hold the university's chair for the search for : : extraterrestrial intelligence--what researchers say is the first academic : : position of its kind in the world. : : That's right, he's waiting for ET to get on the phone. : : "We get that a lot," said Welch, who teaches astronomy and electrical : : engineering. Smiling politely at "X-Files" jokes, UFO questions and "Star Trek" : : references is practically part of the job. It's also part of his life. His : : wife, Jill Tartar, heads Project Phoenix for the Mountain View-based Search for : : Extraterrestrial Intelligence (known as SETI) near San Jose. She was the model : : for the astronomer played by Jodie Foster in the 1997 film "Contact," which is : : based on a story by Carl Sagan. : : With his appointment to the university's chair, Welch can place even : : greater emphasis on one of his great passions: finding evidence that human : : beings are not alone in the universe. : : "What's important about this position is the recognition that what we are : : working with is serious, legitimate science," he said. "We know so little about : : what's out there, not to look for [intelligent life] is really foolish." : : Scientists have been looking "out there" from the university's Hat Creek : : Observatory near Lassen Peak in the Cascades since the 1960s. Welch helped set : : up the radio astronomy lab, and UC Berkeley scientists have been tracking : : signals sent by planets, stars, black holes and galaxies ever since. : : Ten radiotelescopes scan the heavens from a small plateau in the : : mountains. The whir and whine of their motors cut through the country : : stillness. Their round, white faces tilt in unison as a computer runs a : : "script," telling them where to point. A coyote watches this eerie ballet from : : the edge of a nearby clearing. Swallows flutter away when their perch suddenly : : swivels. : : Welch, 65, has been making the trip to Hat Creek for more than 40 years. : : He became a researcher at the university's observatory there in 1963 and served : : as director from 1972 to 1996. Rather than make the five- to six-hour drive : : north from the Bay Area, Welch learned to fly. : : "Interstate 5 wasn't built then, and on each trip up here I'd see a few : : accidents on the roads," he said. "I figured the odds were against me, so : : flying to Hat Creek looked like a good idea." : : Welch now flies in weekly in his blue Cessna as he carries out his : : five-year mission. The Watson and Marilyn Albert chair he has held since : : September was set up with a $500,000 gift by a pair of Berkeley alumni. : : The professor plans to build 500 to 1,000 radiotelescopes, which will be : : electronically connected to form one enormous instrument. The array would cover : : more than two acres and have a collecting area of 10,000 square meters. The : : giant telescope is expected to cost about $25 million. : : "The exciting thing is we think we can arrange to look in several : : directions at once, which means that instead of looking at 10 stars, we can : : look at hundreds of stars," Welch said. : : The resulting radiotelescope will be devoted largely to the search for : : extraterrestrial life. The instrument will scan the universe and listen for a : : signal whose power and narrow focus make it stand out from galactic "noise." If : : such a signal is heard, an alarm will sound and scientists will search for the : : source. : : "If someone is sending a beacon and they're within 10 light years, we'll : : be able to hear it. We'll be able to have a conversation," Welch said, then : : grinned. "My nightmare is the answer will come back, 'Would you please repeat : : the : : question?' " : : In light of intense interest in and skepticism about the project, Welch : : finds himself repeating several answers. : : "I have to tell people we're not looking for UFOs; we're looking for : : signals," he said. "I'm pretty well convinced there are other people out there. : : But will we find them in this lifetime? I'd say that's a longshot. But we have : : to look." : : Robert Jastrow, director of the Mount Wilson Institute in Los Angeles, : : agreed. : : A renowned astronomer who joined NASA the day it was formed, Jastrow : : helped oversee an event many thought would remain pure science fiction: the : : Apollo moon landing. He called Berkeley's SETI program a realistic project : : based on a line of clear reasoning. : : "Life is made of molecular building blocks that can exist on other planets : : and, for the first time, we have evidence that planets are common in the : : universe," Jastrow said. "If we find life on Mars, even if it's very primitive, : : then we know life started on two planets in one solar system. That makes the : : proposition of life in other solar systems even more likely." : : But what kind of life? Science fiction has long speculated on who could be : : out there and what they might want from Earth. : : Solomon Golomb, a professor of electrical engineering at USC, specializes : : in the creation and detection of signals. He wrote a tongue-in-cheek paper in : : the 1950s called Extraterrestrial Linguistics. It concludes with H.G. Wells' : : story about aliens who arrive on Earth "to serve man." : : "It turns out that they're writing a cookbook--rather a different meaning : : of 'to serve,' " he said. : : And that's his point. The idea that someone would advertise their location : : in the universe also presents problems, Golomb said. Although Earth's : : scientists listen to the universe, they don't advertise our presence. Radio and : : television transmissions emanating from our planet are so weak that they become : : mere noise over great distances. We don't send the kind of concentrated beacon : : Welch and others are searching for. : : "We're willing to listen but we don't transmit," Golomb said. "There might : : be a billion intelligent civilizations out there with that same attitude. : : Advertising 'Here's a good, hospitable planet' could be inviting pirates." : : Alien civilizations may remain ignorant of UC Berkeley's project, but many : : earthlings are already obsessed. It's human nature, says Stephen O'Leary, : : associate professor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication. : : "This appeals to a really deep part of the soul and imagination, and the : : university's appointment of a chair in the field reflects that," O'Leary said. : : "Try to imagine life from another planet and you are at the boundary of human : : understanding." : : That boundary is a perfect fit for Welch. He can look at the squiggle of : : circles and loopy lines that show the constellation Virgo and see--really : : see--the flaming stars, whirling cosmic dust and the black hole the computer : : printout represents. And he sees the possibilities. : : "There are several hundred billion stars in the Milky Way, and there are : : several hundred billion galaxies in the universe," Welch said. "Just think : : about that. It seems absurd to me that we're the only ones who have made it : : this far."