SETI Institute is a science research organization working to determine if life has developed anywhere other than Earth. The term SETI refers to the _S_earch for _E_xtra_t_errestrial _I_ntelligence. But researchers at the institute seek any form of life beyond Earth, however intelligent it may be. The institute is in Mountain View, California.
Some of the institute’s projects search for intelligent life. Such SETI research uses large radio telescopes and modest-sized optical telescopes to search the sky for signals made by extraterrestrial technology. The institute uses facilities around the world, and it began building its own radio telescope with the University of California at Berkeley. The telescope, known as the Allen Telescope Array, was planned to consist of 350 small dish antennas working as one big antenna. Funding problems forced the telescope to cease construction and operations in April 2011. The telescope resumed operation in late 2011 with funding from the United States Air Force and public donations.
Other work at the SETI Institute deals with the broader search for and study of life in the universe, called astrobiology. The institute’s astrobiologists study life forms that live in extreme conditions on Earth to learn where life might be found elsewhere. They help design instruments to be sent to search for life on other worlds and develop ways to detect biosignatures (indicators of life) on the surfaces and in the atmospheres of distant Earthlike planets and moons.
The institute was founded in 1984. The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) helps fund the institute’s astrobiology work, but its SETI research remains entirely privately funded.
See also Alien life ; Allen Telescope Array ; Astrobiology ; Extraterrestrial intelligence .
