Summary
JILL Tarter has two claims to fame. Not only is she one of America's most respected space scientists, she was also the model for the heroine of a blockbuster Hollywood film. When Jodie Foster graced the silver screen in Contact, as the head of a programme trying to locate alien signals from the cosmos, it was Tarter's story she was bringing to life.
Despite the Hollywood hype, the scientist nevertheless retains her reputation for hard-headed science. Asked recently by a children's magazine if a breakthrough was imminent, she took the pragmatic view. "Chances are the search will take a long time," she replied. "I hope there are readers out there who might want to be my replacement someday."See the full content of this document
Extract
Is There Anybody Out There?
Last week it emerged that she may no longer have any need for a successor. Scientists working for Tarter's US-government funded Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence Programme (Seti), announced they had tracked an unexplained radio signal that was the best candidate yet for "first contact" from an alien civilisation.
The strange signal had been picked up three times by the giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico that Seti uses to ...See the full content of this document
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