SETI: Listening for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — History, Methods, and Core Concepts

SETI Research

SETI searches for intelligent life beyond Earth by listening for radio or laser signals with large antennas and sensitive receivers rather than transmitting, a lineage starting with Cocconi and Morrison’s 1959 thought experiment and Frank Drake’s 1960 Ozma project, with non-detections attributed to limited sky coverage and sensitivity and ongoing, more capable surveys probing more of the galaxy, using both radio and optical methods to detect signals traveling across interstellar space, funded initially by NASA through 1993 and then by private donations with John Billingham playing a key role, and encompassing the Drake Equation, Ozma, Phoenix, the Arecibo message, ETI signal-detection protocols, discussions of the Fermi Paradox and the Wow! Signal, acknowledging Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi as early anticipators of radio-based Martian signal searches, while contemporary researchers refine techniques and expand surveys as part of broader education and outreach on the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence.