A Cosmic Perspective: Searching for Aliens, Finding Ourselves
Are we alone? Humans have been asking this question throughout history. We want to know where we came from, how we fit into the cosmos and where we are going. We want to know whether there is life beyond the Earth and whether any of it is intelligent.
Since the middle of the 20th century we have had tools that permit us to embark on a scientific exploration to try to answer this old question. We no longer have to ask the priests and philosophers what we should believe about extraterrestrial life; we can explore and discover what’s actually out there. Our tools are getting ever better. We have discovered extremophiles in the most unexpected places on this planet, and we have discovered that there really are far more planets than stars out there. We haven’t yet found life beyond Earth, but there is a vast amount of potentially-habitable real estate to explore. The 21st century will be the century in which we will find some answers to this old question; there are many paths we will investigate.
As we look up and look out, we are forced to see ourselves from a cosmic perspective -- a perspective that shows us as all the same, all Earthlings. This perspective is fundamental to finding a way to sustain life on Earth for the long future.
About Dr. Tarter
Jill Tarter received a Bachelor of Engineering Physics degree with distinction from Cornell University and a master’s degree and a PhD in astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. She served as project scientist for NASA’s SETI program, the High-Resolution Microwave Survey, and has conducted numerous observational programs at radio observatories worldwide. Since the termination of funding for NASA’s SETI program in 1993, she has served in a leadership role to secure private funding to continue the exploratory science. Currently, she serves on the management board for the Allen Telescope Array, an innovative array of 350 (when fully realized) 6-meter antennas at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory. It will simultaneously survey the radio universe for known and unexpected sources of astrophysical emissions, and speed up the search for radio emissions from other distant technologies by orders of magnitude.
Tarter’s work has brought her wide recognition in the scientific community, including
the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace, two Public Service Medals
from NASA, Chabot Observatory’s Person of the Year award (1997), Women of Achievement
Award in the Science and Technology category by the Women’s Fund and the San
Jose Mercury News (1998) and the Tesla Award of Technology at the Telluride Tech
Festival (2001). She was elected an AAAS Fellow in 2002 and a California Academy
of Sciences Fellow in 2003. In 2004 Time Magazine named her one of the Time 100
most influential people in the world, and in 2005 Tarter was awarded the Carl
Sagan Prize for Science Popularization at Wonderfest, the biannual San Francisco
Bay Area Festival of Science.
Tarter is deeply involved in the education of future citizens and scientists. In addition to her scientific leadership at NASA and SETI Institute, Tarter was the principal investigator for two curriculum development projects funded by NSF, NASA and others. The first, the Life in the Universe series, created six science teaching guides for grades 3-9 (published 1994-96). Her second project, Voyages Through Time, is an integrated high school science curriculum on the fundamental theme of evolution in six modules: Cosmic Evolution, Planetary Evolution, Origin of Life, Evolution of Life, Hominid Evolution and Evolution of Technology (published 2003). Tarter is a frequent speaker for science teacher meetings and at museums and science centers, bringing her commitment to science and education to both teachers and the public. Many people are now familiar with her work as portrayed by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact.