Posted on 05/23/2012 4:26:04 AM PDT by iowamark
Astronomer Jill Tarter, the inspiration for heroine Ellie Arroway in the novel and movie "Contact," is retiring after spending 35 years scanning the heavens for signals from intelligent aliens.
Tarter is stepping down as the director of the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., the organization's officials announced today (May 22).
But rather than go lie on a beach somewhere,Tarter will continue to devote herself to the search for E.T. She's shifting into a full-time fundraising role for the SETI Institute, which had to shut down a set of alien-hunting radio telescopes for more than seven months last year due to budget shortfalls.
"That was a wake-up call," Tarter told SPACE.com, explaining why she decided to focus on fundraising full-time. "I can't put it off any longer. It's really critical."
A long research career
Tarter, 68, got involved in the SETI search in the 1970s, joining a small group of NASA scientists who were developing new equipment and strategies to make systematic SETI radio observations.
She signed on after reading "Project Cyclops," a seminal 1971 NASA report that described how to use Earth-based radio telescopes to hunt for signs of intelligent alien life up to 1,000 light-years away.
"I hadn't ever been thinking about SETI, or intelligent life elsewhere," Tarter said. "But when I read that document, I was absolutely astonished by the fact that I lived in the first generation of humans that could actually try to do an experiment to answer this really old question."
"The fact that I was alive with the right skill set, at just the right time to tackle this important question, was what hooked me," she added. "That's why I signed up to SETI when I was getting out of graduate school. And I've stayed hooked. I just think it's an amazing privilege to try and take on this challenge, and answer this old, fundamental question."
Though Congress killed NASA's SETI efforts in 1993, Tarter kept up the search. She'd already been with the SETI Institute for nearly a decade at that point, helping to create the nonprofit organization in 1984. In the decades since, she has continued to shape and steer the Institute's sky-scanning efforts, long serving as director of its Center for SETI Research.
Today, the SETI Institute employs more than 150 people, and its scientists are engaged in a range of astrobiology work beyond just looking for radio signals. Tarter said she's proud of the progress the organization has made since the early days, when a handful of pioneering scientists ran the whole show.
The Institute "is far bigger than I ever envisioned it would be when we incorporated it in 1984 with very modest goals to save NASA money," Tarter said. "We have a very vibrant institution of astrobiology, and also education and public outreach, that most people don't know about."
Funding the search
One of the SETI Institute's main signal-scanning tools is the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a set of 42 radio dishes located about 300 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco. The ATA began scanning the heavens for "technosignatures" — electromagnetic signals that could betray the presence of an intelligent alien civilization — in 2007.
SETI had to shut the ATA down in April 2011, however, after budget problems forced the Institute's former partner, the University of California, Berkeley, to withdraw from the project.
The telescopes came back online in December, after SETI secured enough money from private citizens and the United States Air Force, which is interested in using the array to track satellites and space debris, SETI officials said.
In April 2012, California-based nonprofit SRI International came onboard, taking over management duty of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (which includes the ATA).
The experience convinced Tarter that she could make a bigger difference in the SETI search by focusing entirely on fundraising — which she's been doing part-time for many years as the Institute's Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI — than by continuing to direct the Center for SETI Research.
"It was just eye-opening," she said. "We've got to get stable funding into the house to do SETI research. We have a new partner — we got that deal done, so we can operate the array. But now we've got to provide funding for people to actually use it and do clever things, and do research, and look in new ways."
Tarter added that the Institute needs to raise $2 million every year to keep SETI research going. That's the starting point, but she hopes to shoot for $20 million annually at some point, to expand the search and support a variety of SETI activity around the world.
A wealth of exoplanets to explore
Tarter said she doesn't particularly enjoy fundraising, but views it as so important to the future of SETI research that she feels compelled to take it on. She's excited about the Institute's current work, and its future.
The ATA, for example, has been listening for signals from the many alien planet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope. To date, Kepler has flagged more than 2,300 such potential planets. While only a small fraction have been confirmed so far, the Kepler team estimates that at least 80 percent of them will end up being the real deal.
The current flood of alien planet discoveries is investing the SETI search with more purpose and enthusiasm, Tarter said. Astronomers can now point their radio scopes at many star systems that are known to harbor planets, some of which may even be Earth-like worlds.
"The Kepler worlds are really legitimizing SETI," Tarter said. "All of us that are even peripherally involved with that are looking and saying, 'You know, Earth 2.0 — that's just right around the corner. We can almost taste it.'"
Tarter's colleagues will celebrate the researcher and her career on June 23, during a gala event at the SETICon II conference in Santa Clara, Calif. SETICon II, which runs from June 22-24, will bring together scientists, artists and entertainers to explore humanity's place in the universe and the future of the search for life beyond Earth.
What a f*****g wast of time and other peoples' money! The woman should be put in a work gang and forced to do productive labor for all of the taxpayer funds she wasted. I would say what a waste of a mind, but anyone who thinks that aliens are trying to communicate with us (a premise on which SETI is based) is alreay defficient in the mind department.
I wonder which will be found first. Bigfoot or aliens? Or will they both be never ending searches with no results?
Exactly, she should go on a search for common sense.
LOL, but way too late for her.
spending 35 years scanning the heavens for signals from intelligent aliens..”
WOW! What a resume!!!
As a point of reference, SETI is not trying to find aliens speaking to us. SETI is trying to to find aliens speaking to EACH OTHER.
The Federal Government hasn’t paid for SETI in years. They do rent the arrays for other purposes.
I cannot believe that out of all the stars and planets we are all alone. Whether we are the smartest in the universe to have ever lived is the question.
God gave us the ability to worship him. Did beings somewhere else write their own Bible?
I watch all the space and astrophysics science shows on Science Channel and other Discovery and History channel shows on stuff like this.(no not ancient alien crap with the guy with the big hair...)
she has been on a bunch of those shows..and I like her style... she will be missed, I am sure, by her peers.
Good Luck Jill.
FALSE. I attended an astronomy conference once upon a time and one of the SETI crew was there. I asked him at what distance they could detect the signals generated by a planet like earth with their equipment. He honestly answered a couple of light years. I said then what's the point of looking futher away. He then answered that they based their search on the assumption that aliens were trying to communicate with us.
The Federal Government hasn’t paid for SETI in years.
So what? At one time it was taxpayers' hard earned dollars pouring down this idiotic rathole. And it has been heavily funded/subsidized by the taxpayers over the years. Who do you think paid for the radio telescope arrays that they use, eh? Plus there are state funds that were used recently - also taxpayers' hard earned dollars
I cannot believe that out of all the stars and planets we are all alone
So what? Who cares? You gonna go visit 'em? You want to visit supposedly intelligent beings who think totally different than us go to Greece.
God gave us the ability to worship him.
Again, what's this have to do with a waste of taxpayer funded resources.
Not a bad career on the back of the taxpayer. The global warming crowd needs to stop thinking so big. The smaller scams fly under the radar better..and longer.
What a waste of a life and precious resources. There are roughly 2.9 billion people on this planet who are born, live, and die without access to the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet this woman has spent her life trying to contact unknown alien beings. I’m guessing she doesn’t believe that one day soon she will stand before the Almighty and give an account. I hope I’m wrong.
If the Feds paid for SETI, I’d cut pretty much every budget item - except defense - before I’d cut SETI.
The premise of their mission is fascinating and they produce a ton of good radio-astronomy data that is a byproduct of their efforts.
I couldn't have said it better myself. And a waste of her life to boot.
Honestly stated. I wholeheartely disagree with you, and that's the first thing I'd cut, but just out of curiosity, how much money have you voluntarily donated to SETI?
If you ever need a good laugh go watch that big foot show on apl .
It’s a huge unintentional comedy hour
Ah, at least FR is predictable; most of the replies are from people consumed with hatred of science and scientists.
1) It’s a microscopic amount of money.
2) Other than some very minor efforts long ago, it’s not federally funded. it’s funded by donations.
But let’s all mock someone smarter than us who devoted her life to something that hasn’t been successful so far, but if it is would be the single greatest accomplishment in human history.
You seriously think she might have SINNED by working on this? Really?
So, I assume you spend every waking moment bringing the gospel to 2.9 billion people?
Are you afraid of the religious implications of the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life or something?
she has been on a bunch of those shows..and I like her style... she will be missed, I am sure, by her peers.
Good Luck Jill.
Years ago the late Catherine Langford tried to recruit Jill Tarter for a Deep Space Radar Telemetry project run by the Air Force out of Cheyenne Mountain. Rumor had it that a number of notable people such as Samantha Carter, Bill Lee, and Rodney McKay were on the project. It was very tempting for her.
But then Jill got word that linguist and UFO freak Dr. Daniel Jackson (The Pyramids were landing sites for alien spaceships!) was somehow involved. She wisely turned them down...
:)
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