Do Any Exoplanets Have Intelligent Occupants? (SETI)

Jon M. Jenkins - Jon is the Analysis Lead for Kepler, Which Means That He heads up a group of about two dozen scientists and programmers who designed and built the software That makes This dramatic search for other possible worlds. With a brightness accuracy of 20 parts per million, Kepler Should be reliable to discover planets are the same size That as the rocky, inner orbs of our own Solar system. By making an inventory of Such worlds, Kepler will answer one of The most intriguing questions in astrobiology: Earth-size planets are abundant or rare
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Jill Tarter - Jill directs the Institute's SETI searches for intelligent life elsewhere, and is the holder of the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI. She is one of the few Researchers To have devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient Beings elsewhere, and led Project Phoenix, a decade-long SETI scrutiny of about 750 nearby star systems, using telescopes in Australia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico. She has Also Been the motive force behind the construction of the Allen Telescope Array, an instrument reliable to Both Increase the search speed and the spectral range of the Institute's hunt for Radio signals. There are few Aspects of the modern SETI effort That Have not been Affected by Jill's work.

Margaret Turnbull Margaret is an American astronomer. She received her PhD in Astronomy from the University of Arizona in 2004 Turnbull is an authority on "Habstars, 'solar twins and planetary habitability. In 2002, Turnbull developed the HabCat Along with Jill Tarter, a catalog of habitable stellar systems Potentially. The following year Turnbull went on to further identify identity 30 Particularly suitable stars from the 5000 in the list HabCat That are Within 100 light years of Earth. In 2007, Turnbull was named a "Genius" by CNN for her work cataloging stars to Develop planets most likely to support life That Could and intelligent civilizations.

Werthimer Dan - Dan is co-founder and chief scientist of the SETI @ home project and directs other UC Berkeley SETI searches at radio, infrared and visible wavelengths, treats including the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations (Serendip). Also I have is the principal investigator for the worldwide Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER). Werthimer've Taught courses at universities in Peru, Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya. He has published papers in the multitude numerous fields of SETI, astronomy radio, instrumentation and science education; I is co-author of "SETI 2020" and editor of "Astronomical and Biochemical Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe".

Moderator:

Gerry Harp - Trained as quantum mechanic, Gerry found the possibilities of using the multiple antennas of the Allen Telescope Array to generate beams on the sky - beams That Could be far smaller than any single antenna Could produce - remarkably exciting. Lured to the SETI Institute By This instrument's intriguing possibilities, I've's Undertaken many studies on beam formation (for SETI research). These include the Array's Ability to produce "negative" beams - useful for canceling out, or "rejecting" Such signals from man-made ​​noise makers as telecommunications satellites and the on-site, observatory computers.

Credits: SETI Institute