China joins SETI in new effort to discover extraterrestrial life | CGTN America
http://america.cgtn.com/2017/01/30/china-joins-seti-in-new-effort-to-discover-extraterrestrial-life
The search for answers as to whether we are alone in the universe just got a big boost from China.
With the FAST radio telescope in Guizhou, China is joining forces with U.S. researchers to comb the stars and the planets.
At the University of California, Berkeley, hunting for aliens is a full-time job for the group known as SETI – the Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
In 2015, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner launched the so-called Breakthrough Listen program with a $100 million donation and
a touch of a button. Breakthrough Listen uses telescopes from Northern California, Australia and West Virginia to search the
universe for radio and laser signals which are potential indicators of technology from advanced civilizations.
Now researchers here are thrilled that they’ve signed an agreement with the National Astronomical Observatory of China to use
southern China’s new FAST radio telescope.
“It’s the largest single dish radio telescope on the entire planet. It’s able to detect weaker signals than any other telescope.
And we’re very excited to use that telescope when it eventually comes on line for searches for extra-terrestrial intelligence,”
Andrew Siemion, director of University of California, Berkeley’s SETI Research Center, said.
One target of interest is Tabby’s Star.