Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit for Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, K. Kuntz (JHU), F. Bresolin (University of Hawaii), J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Lab), J. Mould (NOAO), Y.-H. Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana), and STScI

It is called NIROSETI for near-infrared optical SETI.

This new instrument can record levels of light over time so that patterns can be analyzed and assessed for potential signs of other civilizations.

For more than five decades, scientists have been on the lookout for radio signals from other starfolk. But instruments capable of capturing pulses of infrared light have only recently become available.

NIROSETI has been installed at the University of California’s Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton east of San Jose and saw “first light” on March 15 – but months of fine-tuning are ahead.

The Nickel 1-meter telescope at Lick Observatory is where NIROSETI has been deployed.

Shelley Wright, an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of California, ‘San Diego, led the development of NIROSETI while at the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Altruism in the universe

Infrared light penetrates farther through gas and dust than visible light. So this new search will extend to stars thousands rather than merely hundreds of light years away.

NIROSETI could uncover new information about the physical universe as well – as well as help shape an answer to some big questions: Are we alone? Just how crowded is it out there?

The group making the NIROSETI campaign possible also includes SETI pioneer Frank Drake of the SETI Institute and UC Santa Cruz who serves as a senior advisor to both past and future projects and is an active observer at the telescope.

Regarding use of NIROSETI there is one downside, Drake observes. “The extraterrestrials would need to be transmitting their signals in our direction,” Drake said in a Univ. of Calif. San Diego press statement, although he sees a positive side to that limitation.

“If we get a signal from someone who’s aiming for us, it could mean there’s altruism in the universe. I like that idea. If they want to be friendly, that’s who we will find,” Drake adds.

Funding for the project comes from the financial support of Bill and Susan Bloomfield.

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