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Project Ozma : First attempt that was made to look for signs for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

The search for exoplanet in the universe today is to look for signs of life outside the Earth. But 60 years ago today, the systematic search for the life of aliens and their signs was started. The purely scientific study was named Project Ozma. This project is believed to be the first attempt to search for life outside Earth.
The curiosity about aliens has never been less in humans. Even scientists along with common people could not escape from this. There have been many projects on the events of seeing aliens on Earth. But few people know that duly efforts have been made to search for aliens in the universe outside the earth. Project Ozma was first started in this. This project is considered to be the first systematic and scientific attempt to search for extraterrestrial life. This project did not get the expected success. But efforts to search for aliens continued even after that.

How the Research started
Astronomers at Cornell University in the US, Frank Drake, started the study of aliens six decades ago, under which to search for Asians in the universe. Darke, who leads his team, commissioned the 85-foot telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory for Project Ozma.

Quest for intelligent life
This was the first attempt to search for intelligent life outside Earth. It was considered very ambitious. But in this first attempt, the researchers were disappointed because they did not find any signs of life outside the Earth. Scientific studies of radio and optical signals in the electromagnetic spectrum are investigated as part of the scientific effort to discover intelligent and developed interstellar civilizations outside Earth.

 What is done with these signals
The patterns of these signals coming from outside the earth are analyzed to determine whether these signals have been sent intentionally or by mistake by aliens or external intelligent beings. Most of the SETI studies are focused on searching for targets that come from around stars like our Sun.

Project Ozma began in 1960 when the first SETI study was conducted. In this an attempt was made to study the interstellar radio signals coming from the systems of other stars. Astronomers led by Drake targeted a pair of stars named Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti. Both these stars were at a distance of 11 light years from Earth and were similar to the Sun.

 

Signs not found even after long observation
Scientists used to think that the planets must be revolving in both these systems. For the study, astronomers observed the sky over a six-hour period and attempted to capture radio signals coming toward Earth. This four-month project saw 150 hours of observation. But the scientists did not find any kind of radio signal. And the project was stopped.

After this, NASA launched a 12-inch disc named Golden Record in 1977 by putting it in both of its Voyager vehicles, which were never to return to Earth. In this, copper and gold discs were kept in an aluminum case. In these discs there were many sounds of the earth, including ocean waves, rain water, the cry of a newborn baby, many songs, hundred pictures and many more.

 

Since then, the nature of space exploration changed a lot, but the spirit behind it remained and that was to look for signs of life or any kind of life outside the Earth. In this search, the name of aliens was replaced by extraterrestrials because it was an important effort in the search for life outside Earth. Outer planets are planets which have or are likely to form favorable conditions for life to flourish. Today, special observatories and telescopes are being sent to search for life in outer planets and beautiful space.

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