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Telescope shows its Amazing Capabilities
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2006/07/11 12:00 CDT
During a few observation sessions in late April, the new Optical SETI Telescope was already demonstrating its amazing capabilities. Over three nights, the telescope completed 17 hours of observation, under the direction of Paul Horowitz and his team of Harvard graduate students. During that time, the telescope observed 1% of the sky, looking for the briefest flashes of light coming from outer space.
Posted by Charlene AndersonAmir Alexander on 2006/07/07 12:00 CDT
Planetary Society members truly have helped pioneer new techniques in the conduct of science. Our initial investment has returned amazing results that will continue to deliver benefits over years to come.
The Planetary Society Optical SETI Telescope Opens
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2006/04/28 12:00 CDT
On April 11, 2006, a new era dawned in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) with the dedication and beginning of operations of The Planetary Society Optical SETI Telescope in Harvard, Massachusetts. It is the first devoted optical SETI telescope in the world. The telescope was constructed by Paul Horowitz and his group at Harvard University using funding from Planetary Society members.
Analyzing Signals in Real Time
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2005/07/07 12:00 CDT
Candidate signals sent in by users around the world will be quickly analyzed and compared to existing signals.
IBM's World Community Grid: A New SETI@home-Inspired Venture
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2004/11/24 11:00 CST
As SETI@home has demonstrated, untold millions around the world are ready and eager to donate their computer time for the advancement of knowledge and the benefit of humankind. The story of distributed computing is only just beginning.
Scientists from Different Fields Line Up to Join the BOINC Family
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2004/08/24 12:00 CDT
BOINC stands for the “Berkeley Online Infrastructure for Network Computing.” Its purpose is to spread the credo of distributed computing beyond SETI@home, by making it easy for researchers in all fields to launch their own projects, and tap into the enormous computing capacity of personal computers around the world.
Multi-Beam Receiver Promises New Vistas for SETI Research
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2004/08/04 12:00 CDT
Faster and more regular sky surveys, at an increased sensitivity and broader bandwidth, will push the boundaries of SETI to new and unexplored territories.
Pulses, Triplets, and Gaussians: Rescoring the Reobservations
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2004/05/17 12:00 CDT
It has been more than a year since the SETI@home crew spent a hectic week at Arecibo, pointing the giant radio telescope at some of SETI's most promising targets. Much of the data collected during the reobservations has since been repackaged as work units, and sent out to users around the world for analysis.
New and Improved SETI@home will Form the Backbone of Distributed Computing Network
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/09/25 12:00 CDT
SETI@home and BOINC are gradually converging, and the benefits for both are substantial. While SETI@home enjoys the increased flexibility of the BOINC platform, it brings to BOINC something of inestimable value to a distributed computing project: millions of SETI@home users, willing to use their computers' processing power for the advancement of scientific research.
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/07/18 12:00 CDT
SETI@home chief scientist Dan Werthimer and his team went back to Arecibo to reobserve the most promising candidate signals detected by the project so far. Unlike most of the year, when SETI@home piggy-backs on the regular operations of the telescope, this time the Werthimer's crew had the full use of the resources of the giant dish.
Reobservations Report No. 8: Beyond the Countdown: SETI@home Makes Plans for the Future
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/03/27 11:00 CST
SETI@home's Stellar Countdown has come to an end at the Arecibo Radio Observatory. All in all the Stellar countdown observed 227 promising locations in the sky. Within the next few weeks all the data collected and recorded will be processed by SETI@home users around to world.
Reobservations Report No. 7: On Last Day at Arecibo, SETI@home Turns to Distant Planetary System
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/03/24 11:00 CST
After getting bumped off the telescope last week to make way for Solar flare observations, SETI@home Chief Scientist Dan Werthimer and his crew will spend 14 hours today observing the locations of SETI@home's most promising candidate signals, as well as a few other interesting locations.
Reobservations Report No. 6: Solar Intervention Postpones SETI@home Reobservations
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/03/19 11:00 CST
SETI@home's plans to reobserve its most promising candidate signals were interrupted today by the unexpected intervention of a Solar flare.
Reobservations Report No. 5: First Observation Session Completed at Arecibo
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/03/18 11:00 CST
The SETI@home team has completed the first of its three 8-hour observation session at Arecibo, designed to revisit the most promising candidate signals detected so far by SETI@home.
Reobservations Report No. 4: Results in Real Time
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/03/17 11:00 CST
SETI@home scientists will have to wait for several weeks for the full analysis of the data collected during the reobservations. But even while the observations are going on at Arecibo, they will already have a good idea if they have found something significant.
Reobservations Report No. 3: Selecting the Finalist Candidates
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/03/14 11:00 CST
For three successive days SETI@home will have use of the giant Arecibo radio telescope to revisit the most promising candidate signals detected since the project was launched in 1999. SETI@home Chief Scientist Dan Werthimer and his team put together a list of the "best" 200 locations in the sky where promising candidates have previously been detected.
Reobservations Report No. 2: Reobserving, Recording, and Reprocessing
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/03/12 11:00 CST
For the first time during the reobservations, Werthimer and his crew will have use of another recorder. This is Arecibo's "radar" recorder, built for those occasions when the giant dish is used as a radar, bouncing electromagnetic signals off planets, moons, and asteroids.
Reobservations Report No. 1: Shifting Gears at Arecibo
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2003/03/10 11:00 CST
In the next few days, SETI@home Chief Scientist Dan Werthimer, along with team members Eric Korpela and Paul Demorest, will head down to Arecibo in Puerto Rico. There, at the site of the largest radio telescope in the world, they will begin a new chapter in the short history of the project: the reobservation of SETI@home's most promising candidate signals.
SETI@home Listens to the Dying Gasps of Black Hole
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2001/11/05 11:00 CST
If we were to listen to radio transmissions from space, we should be able to hear the dying gasps of black holes. As it turns out, we are listening, or at least the SETI@home receiver is. Perched above the giant Arecibo dish, it is systematically surveying a large portion of the sky, listening to the signals coming from space.
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