PHONE HOME: E.T. tried to call home using this "phone."MATTINGLY23/WIKIPEDIA.ORG
Earthlings have wondered for a long time whether life-forms as smart as we are—or smarter—are out there. Our species finds the idea of intelligent extraterrestrial life so fascinating that it has become a staple of literature, music, and film. Think H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, E.T. phoning home. And the notion may not be so far-fetched, as more and more stars are found to have orbiting planets—853 such planets confirmed as of December 1, a handful of those possibly resembling our own.
While Earth-scale planets in “habitable zone” orbits have only recently been spotted, astronomers’ search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has a much longer history. The SETI Institute opened its doors in 1985 with a mission to search for unusual radio signals that ...
