SETI@home needs YOU!

According to the ScienceDaily online magazine: The longest-running search for radio signals from alien civilizations is getting a burst of new data from an upgraded Arecibo telescope, which means the SETI @ home project needs more desktop computers to help crunch the data. Since SETI@home launched eight years ago, the project has signed up more than 5 million interested volunteers. Yet, new and more sensitive receivers on the world's largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and better frequency coverage are generating 500 times more data for the project than before. According to project scientist Eric Korpela, the new data amounts to 300 gigabytes per day, or 100 terabytes (100,000 gigabytes) per year, about the amount of data stored in the U.S. Library of Congress. What triggered the new flow of data was the addition of seven new receivers at Arecibo, which now allow the telescope to record radio signals from seven regions of the sky simultaneously instead of just one. With greater sensitivity and the ability to detect the polarization of the radio signals, plus 40 times more frequency coverage, Arecibo is set to survey the sky for new radio sources.

If you are interested in participating in the Seti@HOME project, you can go to http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ to get more information or to download the software.

complete story