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US Air Force Pays SETI To Check Kepler-22b For Alien Life

Posted by Soulskill on from the best-defense-is-a-strong-offense dept.

New submitter iComp writes with this quote from El Reg: "The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has announced that it is back in business checking out the new [potentially] habitable exoplanets recently discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope to see if they might be home to alien civilizations. The cash needed to restart SETI's efforts has come in part from the U.S. Air Force Space Command, who are interested in using the organization's detection instruments for 'space situational awareness'."

9 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Does this mean... by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean I'll finally have a use for my Y2k bunker? If so, I should get busy building it.

    1. Re:Does this mean... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's ok, you still have the best part of 89 years to build it.

    2. Re:Does this mean... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your clock says December 7, 1911 too? Mine didn't handle the century flip either. The great thing about the Y2K bug is that once you have it, it'll keep coming back every hundred years.

  2. USAF looking for new targets... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before they're finished blowing up people and things in Afghanistan etc?

  3. Situational awareness? by Ardeaem · · Score: 5, Funny
    Before I read that the array was going to be used by the Air Force for non-SETI purposes (something not made apparent by the summary), my thought was: "The planet is 600 light years away. Let's say we detect radio signals from Kepler-22b. That means we know that on a planet 3 quadrillion miles away, some species used radio signals 600 years ago. That's not exactly situational awareness..."

    I imagined a conversation about "situational awareness" during the Iraq war going something like this:

    General: So, what's the situation?
    Advisor: Sir! In the 15th century, the Aztecs defeated Azcapotzalco, sir!
    General: Excellent!

  4. Re:Jill Tarter by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, but did she look like

    According to Google image search, a young Jodi Foster.

    --
    Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
  5. Re:HAnd how will they know that ? by Ardeaem · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they looked our way today, they would have front-row seats to the rise of the Ottoman empire.

    Front row seats? If I had front row tickets to a concert, and they seated me 600 light years away, I'd be pissed. Unless it was a Disaster Area concert. Or Justin Bieber.

  6. Re:nice...sub orbital hypersonic missile tracker. by Anachragnome · · Score: 5, Funny

    "the USAF wants to track sub orbital cruise missiles..."

    I'd say that the discovery of sub-orbital missiles on Kepler-22b would be a pretty damn good indication of alien life. Intelligent? Not so much.

  7. Re:Oblig. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Funny

    We may finally achieve the dreams of our ancient ancestors, who gazed up at the stars and thought, "I wonder if there are any bangable chicks up there?"

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel