Since the 1960s, scientists have been listening with radio telescopes for broadcasts from alien civilizations. So far--lots of static. But they're about to get a huge help in the search. Last March, NASA launched the Kepler telescope, which measures faint shifts in starlight to find planets circling other stars. Now instead of randomly listening to trillions of points in the sky, scientist will be able to focus their radio telescopes on stars with Earth-like rocky planets. This makes their chances of finding evidence of alien life far greater. So might your next radio show originate from another world? Guest-host Jon Beaupre finds out.
Guests:
Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View
James Fanson, Project Manager for the Kepler telescope