PAGE 16, THE HERALD, Tuesday, June 27, 1978

Scientists proving we’re not alone

By ROBERT LOCKE

PASADENA, Calif. (AP)
— Imagine a planet circling
some distant atar, populated
by a race that wonders
whether it is alone in the
universe.

To search for cosmic
neighbors, the distant
civilization might build a
powerful radio transmitter
and send a signal into the
heavens, a signal that might
travel for thousands, or even
millions, of years at the
speed of light before
rea earth.

The signal might carry the
story of their kind, the cure
for cancer, the secret of
peace. But mostly it might
say: “You are not alone.”

That’s the dream that
drives earthbound scientists.
Many think the statistical
odds favor the view that
intelligent life should exist
“out there.”

“The numbers are very
convincing,’ said Robert E.
Ed:leon of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory inn-
Pasadena.

There are about 200 billion
stars in the Milky Way, the
galaxy that includes our sun,
one of maybe 100 billion ga-
lanies in the universie.
NUMBERS LIMITLESS

Edelson said current
theories suggest as many as
100 billion stars in the Milky
Way alone might be circled

planets.

That fact, plus ‘‘what
seems to be almost the
inevitability of life coming
into existence If the right
environment is present,
suggests that there are vast
numbers of bodies on which

life has or is evolving,”
Edelson said in an Interview.

But Edelson said that con-
clusion involves ‘‘an dement
of daith based on scientific
knowledge because we have
absolutely no evidence of the
existence of anyone other
than ourselves.”

Edelson is heading
mankind's most. com-
prehensive search for in-
telligent life beyond earth.
The National Aercnautics
and Space Administration’s
proposed 1978-79 budget
includes $2million for the
project, which carries an
expected total price of
$iGmillion.

The first two years of the
Program will used to
develop sophisticated
equipment to interpret radio
signals received at three
radio-telescopes near
Goldstone, in the southern
California desert.

BEGINS IN 1980

Computers must sort*
through the plethora of radio
signals from earth, from
orbiting satellites and from
countiéss natural sources
throughout the universe.

Then, beginning in 1980,
the telescopes would spend
five years searching the
heavens for that special

signal,

Edelson said his project
would be “perhaps 10,000
times more comprehensive
than anything that has ever
been done in the past.”

“We might find a signal on
the first day. Or we might
never find one. We have no
idea of the probability that
such a signal exists,’’

Edelson said the search is

based on several] assump-
tions, “the most basic of
which is that we're looking
for signals that are intended
for detection.”

Given the state of earth's
technology, the only neigh-
bors we are likely to find are
these who are locking for
someone like us.

'Kt's unlikely that we
would be able ta detect ac-
cidental broadcasts, their
own TV and things like
that,” because the signals
would be too weak.

Nor are we Ilkely to
overhear communications
between two stars that have
already established some
kind of link.

ANSWER WOULD BE
SLOW -

A civillzation capable of
contact with us would most
likely be technological,
more advanced than any on
earth ‘where we're only 40
or 50 years into the radio
business,"’ be said.

Ef a signal is found, the im-
menae distances betweer
stars would make con-
versation difficult.

Sending a question might
result in an answer two or
three hundred years later,”
Edelson said. n

Light and radio waves
travel through empty space
at the speed of light, 188,000
miles per second or 5,89
trillion miles a year.

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