SETI

Question 1

Who carried out the first SETI observations?

Answer 1

Frank Drake in 1960 and 1961

Question 2

What was Project Ozma?

Answer 2

SETI experiments in 1960

Question 3

What was the aim of Project Ozma?

Answer 3

Search for signs of life through interstellar radio waves

Question 4

What radio telescope did they use for Project Ozma?

Answer 4

43m radio telescope in Green Bank

Question 5

What did they do to search for Project Ozma?

Answer 5

Search for any regular patterns that would not occur naturally

Question 6

Who dominated SETi in 1960s-1970s?

Answer 6

Soviet Union
US

Question 7

What happened to the SETI program in the US in the 1980s?

Answer 7

1981 - funding removed from NASAs budget
1984 - All NASA funding observations gone

Question 8

Who established the SETI institute?

Answer 8

Carl Sagan

Question 9

What year was the SETI institute established?

Answer 9

1984

Question 10

What happened in 1994 to SETI insitute?

Answer 10

US gov cancelled all NASA funding fully so SETI became privately funded

Question 11

What was Project Phoenix?

Answer 11

Study of 800 sun-like stars within 200 lyr.
Using rented telescopes from 1995-2004

Question 12

What was the conclusion of Project Phoenix?

Answer 12

We live in a quiet neighbourhood

Question 13

Who donated to SETI in 2000?

Answer 13

Paul Allen to build huge array for SETI

Question 14

What is the Allen Telescope array made up of?

Answer 14

350x 6.1 m dishes

Question 15

What is the Drake Equation?

Answer 15

Estimate number of civilisations in the Milky way today able to communicate with us

Question 16

What are the two types of extraterrestrial signals?

Answer 16

Passive signals
Active signals

Question 17

What is Ns in the Drake Equation?

Answer 17

Number of relevant stars in the milky way.
Roughly 100 billion

Question 18

What is fs in the drake equation?

Answer 18

Fraction of solar-type stars
Roughly 1/200

Question 19

What is Np in the drake equation?

Answer 19

Number of planets per solar-type star
Estimated 0.1

Question 20

What is fe in the drake equation?

Answer 20

Fraction of planets that are Earth-like
Estimated 0.1

Question 21

What is fi in drake equation?

Answer 21

Fraction of Earth-like planets on which life develops
Estimated 0.2

Question 22

What is fc in the drake equation?

Answer 22

Fraction of planets with life that develop civilisation
Estimated 0.5

Question 23

What is L in the drake equation?

Answer 23

lifetime of civilisation as a fraction of the lifetime of the Milky Way
Estimated X/10 power of 10

Question 24

What is the overall value calculated from the drake equation?

Answer 24

X/20000

Question 25

If civilisations last for one million years what is estimation for number of civilisations in the galaxy?

Answer 25

50

Question 26

What would be the average seperation in the galaxy?

Answer 26

5500 ly

Question 27

What is the quietest part of the EM-spectrum?

Answer 27

3cm < x < 30cm

Question 28

Why is the wavelengths 18-21cm especially quiet?

Answer 28

It is the water hole Strongest hydroxyl radical OH radiates at 18cm and Hydrogen at 21cm

Question 29

What is Pioneer 10?

Answer 29

Active SETI Carry plaque in case its found by intelligent life-forms 12 billion km away

Question 30

How have humans been unintentionally sending out transmittions into space?

Answer 30

Radio, TV, radar

Question 31

How far away can we be detected?

Answer 31

4000 ly 900 million stars at this distance

Question 32

What message was sent out in 1974?

Answer 32

Sent by Arecibo to globular cluster M13 23 rows by 74 columns

Question 33

What messages have been recieved?

Answer 33

Wow signal 1977 Ohio State Uni radio observatory 30x above background noise

Question 34

What is a low frequency array?

Answer 34

Radio telescope working at lowest frequency accessible from earth. Combine receives with computing

Question 35

LOFAR in the UK?

Answer 35

Near Winchester opened in 2010

Question 36

Where was green bank telescope tuned to?

Answer 36

21cm emission come from interstellar hydrogen

Question 37

What are the 4 things on Pioneer plaque?

Answer 37

Outline of humans Position of sun relative to 14 pulsars Map of our SS Transition in neutral hydrogen