What was Project Ozma that began hunting signs of alien life on April 11 in 1960?

About six decades ago on April 11, astronomer Frank Drake from Cornell University initiated a study to hunt aliens hidden in the unfathomably large universe. Leading a team, Drake in 1960, turned on the 85-foot telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory for Project Ozma- the first SETI study ever conducted. While the project seemed ambitious enough, it ended in disappointment as the team received no singals suggesting life exists anywhere other than the Earth.

(The National Radio Astronomy Observatory; Image: NRAO/AUI/NSF)

What is SETI?

Short for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI is the scientific effort to finds intelligent and advanced interstellar civilisations. Under such studies, scientists look for signals specifically in radio and visible light of the electromagnetic spectrum. These signals, if any, are they analysed to look for patterns, in order to determine if they were deliberately or even mistakenly sent by an advanced extraterrestrial beings, or aliens. The SETI studies mostly targeted searches which focus on groups of stars similar to our sun.

Project Ozma

Project Ozma, which began on April 11, 1960, was the first SETI study to look for interstellar radio signals transmitted from other star systems. Led by Drake, a team of astronomers targeted a pair of stars- Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti. Both the stars were sun-like and were about 11 light years from Earth, making scientists believe that they might have planets orbiting them. For the study, the astronomers scanned the sky for six hours, to pick up radio signals travelling towards Earth. The project lasted for four months-- April to July-- wherein the astronomers conducted over 150 hours of on and off observations. Drake and his team, however, received no such signal and the project eventually came to a halt.

This, however, was not humanity's final attempt to contact alien life. NASA followed up with a 'Golden Record', a 12-inch disk fitted on two Voyager aircrafts which where launched in 1977. A brainchild of astronomer Carl Sagan, the Golden Records were etched in copper, plated in gold and cased in aluminum before heading it drifted into interstellar space never to return again. The disks consist of sounds from Earth, which include crashing of the ocean waves, falling rain and the crying of a newborn along with greetings in over 50 languages, multiple songs, over 100 photographs and much more. Summing up the idea behind the records in Sagan's own words, "it would be impolite not to say hello".

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