The search for extraterrestrial life precedes the creation of major space agencies. From early radio explorations to the famous "Wow! signal" of 1977, the idea that someone must be out there has not lost support. The big problem behind this activity is none other than budget, but Russian tycoon Yuri Milner, with the backing of titans like Stephen Hawking and Frank Drake, wants to change that with Breakthrough Listen, an initiative of 100 million dollars.
Frank Drake once said that his equation was simply a way to "organize our ignorance" about the search for extraterrestrial life. Formal exploration aimed at detecting extraterrestrial signals has been going on for 50 to 60 years. The most striking example so far has been the famous "Wow! signal" recorded by Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977, but even today its origin is doubted, due to multiple attempts to detect it again. In other words, the Fermi Paradox hits us year after year. There are billions of stars like the Sun, which have a high probability of being accompanied by planets similar to Earth. Even if a fraction of those planets develops life, and a fraction of that fraction gives rise to a civilization advanced enough to create an interstellar travel mechanism, we should have already detected some trace.
That is where the Breakthrough Listen initiative points, presented by Russian tycoon and philanthropist Yuri Milner at the Royal Society in London. The choice of July 20 for the announcement is no coincidence, while the achievements of the New Horizons mission at Pluto have revitalized general interest in space exploration. Milner has the support of none other than Stephen Hawking and Frank Drake, as well as Lord Martin Rees (Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom) and Geoff Marcy, astronomer, professor, and the most successful exoplanet hunter. The sum available for Breakthrough Listen amounts to a nothing-to-sneeze-at 100 million dollars, which will be invested in multiple aspects, including the purchase of thousands of hours per year of observation time on the radio telescopes at Green Bank (United States) and Parkes (Australia). Both radio telescopes combined will cover "ten times more sky" than previous projects, exploring the million stars closest to the Solar System for a minimum of ten years.
As if that were not enough, Breakthrough Listen will join forces with SETI@Home, which has been analyzing signals with the help of users and their donated processing power for more than fifteen years. According to Milner himself, Breakthrough Listen will be able to collect in one day the same volume of data that previously took about a year. However, there is a very clear decision at its core: Listen, not communicate.
