How do you work out if a signal from space is a message from aliens?
Astronomers in Puerto Rico have picked up signal from a faint star that's not like anything they've seen before.
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Articles on SETI
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2016: the year in space and astronomy
Colliding black holes to exploding spacecraft, 2016 was an incredible year for astrophysics.
We’re no strangers to ‘alien’ false alarms – one was caused by a microwave oven
Mysterious radiation that appears to come from star HD 164595 is more likely to have a terrestrial origin.
If we ever came across aliens, would we be able to understand them?
Some argue that it would be impossible to understand an alien language, as it wouldn't have the same grammar as humans use. But others are more optimistic.
RIP E.T. – alien life on most exoplanets dies young
Complex life may be rare in the universe because most planets become either too hot or too cold before life has a chance to get a foothold. This might explain why we have yet to bump into E.T.
How to tell the world you’ve discovered an alien civilisation
In a world of blogs, twitter and open data, scientists need to think again about how they'd communicate a discovery of alien life.
Space in 2015 was out of this world
From a flyby of Pluto to the search for extrasolar planets and gravitational waves, 2015 was a monumental year for space news.
Cloudy with a chance of life: how to find alien life on distant exoplanets
A hint of oxygen and a whiff of methane in a distant exoplanet's atmosphere may be the first evidence we discover of alien life.
What are the odds of an alien megastructure blocking light from a distant star?
The chance that Kepler has spotted construction of a Dyson sphere are very low but it could also be the ruins of such a structure.
Whatever the strangest star in the galaxy is, it’s sure to be amazing
There's a lot of speculation about a star behaving strangely in our galaxy. But even if it's not evidence of alien intelligence, it's sure to be an amazing discovery.
Heavens above: what Earth 2.0’s discovery means for God
Kepler-452b's discovery last week has raised the perennial question: are we alone in the universe? While the find's scientific import is huge, it also poses questions that go to the heart of religion.
What is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence actually looking for?
Given Earth is our sole example of life in the universe, it's hard to know what we're looking for elsewhere in the cosmos.
Why the $100m alien listening project may be a huge waste of time
Simple mathematics suggests that if there are aliens out there, they should have reached us by now. So is it really worthwhile trying to communicate with them?
If we are to find life beyond Earth, we need to be explorers, not hunters
Why the Breakthrough Listen project is a step in the right direction in our hunt for life beyond Earth.
The hunt for ET will boost Australian astronomy
The Parkes radio telescope is part of the US$100 million search for life elsewhere in the universe, but the investment will also benefit other space research at The Dish.
Why I believe we’ll find aliens – leading expert on search for intelligent extra-terrestrial life
The Conversation organised a public question-and-answer session on Reddit in which Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, explained why searching for intelligent life is so important and…
We could find alien life, but politicians don’t have the will
While alien life can be seen nightly on television and in the movies, it has never been seen in space. Not so much as a microbe, dead or alive, let alone a wrinkle-faced Klingon. Despite this lack of protoplasmic…
Can the mother of all supercomputers save us from Big Brother?
Today I’m annoyed at Facebook. Among the amazingly witty and touching postings from my friends and Amnesty International are “pages you might like” and advertisements for things I don’t need, especially…
Top contributors
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Researcher at Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University
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Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow, University of Southern Queensland
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Associate Professor and Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor of Astrophysics Education, The Open University
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Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute
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Research Fellow, University of St Andrews
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Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University
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Head of Education and Public Outreach LSST, Australian Astronomical Observatory
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ARC Laureate Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology., Swinburne University of Technology
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Joan F W Munro Professor of Historical Theology, University of Divinity
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James Martin Research Fellow, Future of Humanity Institute & Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford
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Professor (Physics), University of Southern Queensland
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Director, Astronomy and Space Science, CSIRO
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PhD candidate researching galaxy formation and evolution, Swinburne University of Technology
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Senior Research Associate (Psychology), Lancaster University
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