What was Project Ozma?
This was the first serious attempt to look for radio signals from an extraterrestrial civilization. In 1959, Dr. Frank Drake started the project at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia. Using a 85 feet (26 meters) radio telescope, Drake investigated stars Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. Both stars are about eleven light years (66 trillion miles) away and are similar to our sun.
As you may have guessed the results were negative but it was a forerunner to many of today’s SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) projects. SETI is group of activities (especially using radio telescopes) to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Project Ozma's name came from the Princess Ozma, of the fictional land of Oz created by L. Frank Baum. The princess appears in every Oz book except The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
(Illustration from The Lost Princess of Oz by John R. Neill)
This Q&A by Brent Mitchell
Brent's dream was to grow-up and be a scientist. While the growing up part is debatable, he was a clinical researcher for...
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