What would it mean to you if we’re NOT alone?

At the SETI Institute we work every day to expand our knowledge of the nature of life itself, always seeking to provide a bigger picture -- one in which all of humanity is united, one intelligent species among perhaps many others in the universe. We are inspired by the fact that we are the first generation of humans able to use technology to reach out into the vast universe and discover our place among the stars. Such an endeavor, of course, is no small feat.

We continue to make major advances in the search for life beyond Earth, serving as a global leader in not only SETI science, but all of astrobiology, pursuing expanded perspectives on the origin and nature of life in the universe. We share the common belief that advancements in our science shouldn’t be shared with just a chosen few but instead should be shared to unite all the people of the world.

Where We’re Headed

As the SETI Institute celebrates our 25th year of scientific exploration, we hope you will join us in learning more about our collective search for answers, engaging all of humanity in this exciting and crucial journey of discovery and expanded perspective.

The Institute is working to:

• Tap into the global brain trust, to expand the reach and technological capabilities of our science
• Augment the automated search with human insight, using the pattern recognition capability of the human eye to find faint, complex signals that our current algorithms miss. Anyone with a computer and the desire would be able to quite literally get in on the search
• Bring our story to life to engage people of all ages across the globe
• Inspire and recruit the next generation, who will continue this unprecedented journey and carry the torch to another generation, so that the roads we pave today will lead to untold destinations of scientific discovery tomorrow.

We’ve Come a Long Way

The Allen Telescope Array in Northern California is listening and seeking answers as it reaches further into space utilizing the latest advances in radio astronomy.  We also explore with our new optical technologies, broadening our search for evidence of intelligent life with our Lick Observatory Optical SETI Project. It’s a big universe out there, and one thing we know for sure is that if we don’t search, we’ll never know.

The SETI Institute has over 90 scientists working on 100+ projects all over the world, making groundbreaking scientific discoveries about the nature of life itself. And what we discover every day is that life is a lot tougher and more prevalent than we had ever imagined, a good sign. 

“It’s impossible to overstate the magnitude of the search that remains. All of the concerted SETI efforts, over the last 50 years, are equivalent to scooping a single glass of water from the oceans. And no one would decide that the ocean was without fish on the basis of one glass of water. The 21st century now allows us to build bigger glasses, much bigger glasses.”-- Jill Tarter

The SETI Institute is a unique team of world class scientists dedicated to understanding the origin and nature of life on Earth and its possible existence throughout the universe.

The Institute accomplishes this via:

• Research - Fundamental and significant investigations into the workings of life, and how and where it might have arisen.

• Exploration - Examining life in its most extreme forms and locations on Earth, exploring our solar system for evidence of microbial life, and searching the cosmos for indications of distant life, especially intelligent life.

• Education - Education and Outreach programs inviting students to participate in our search for life in the universe, and sharing the wonder of our science with the public.

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