Aliens and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence

Tonight the search for extraterrestrial intelligence a noble scientific pursuit or wild sci fi conspiracy theory. But can a little dose. But. How will we hunt for life outside our solar system. What will it look like. And what has this all got to do with the lizard people. I'm Claire Riley for CNN. Welcome to watch this space. From the cnet's Studios in Sydney, this is your guide to everything on earth you need to know about space. And tonight, we're talking about extraterrestrial life. But before all you, info wars hit, no truth is come at me. I'm only interested in the science. All right are you still here? Good because the government has been lying to you to search alien life is real and those insane poster charts you've been making in your basement aren't crazy. Okay well they are crazy but the first two things are true. The search for extra terrestrial intelligence or setti is all about finding signs of intelligent life elsewhere in our galaxy. And it's not science fiction Turns out NASA has been searching to in 1992, NASA established an official SETI program to use radio astronomy to find signs of life on other planets. But after just one year, Congress pulled its funding, but that search hasn't stopped. One of the main groups pushing it forward is the SETI Institute which gets partial funding from NASA. And has a team of scientist studying exoplanets, examining how planets were formed, and researching the astrobiology needed to support life on other worlds. I know what you're thinking. The hunt for alien life is real, but we're not overrun with little green men, what gives? Well there's no need to go full Area 51 on me. No Sum 41, why does this keeps happening? The reason we haven't become an alien ant farm is because despite all those Party City costumes you bought, alien life isn't actually that sexy. Let's take a journey through our search for extraterrestrial intelligence and all the way scientists have made it boring. First off, there's radio astronomy. We've been studying radio signals for signs of life ever since Marconi supposedly picked up transmissions from beyond Earth back in 1919, but one of the biggest discoveries came in 1977 from the Big Ear radio telescope in Ohio. Astronomer Jerry Ayman was picking through data from the beginning that's not a great way of saying he was using a q tip and in that data he found a radio signal that lasted roughly one minute he wrote the word wow on the printout because apparently he's a kid in the 1950s comic book and it's been known as the well signal ever since Well this discovery sounds cool. It wasn't exactly some secret alien message. It was just a mash of encoded data represented by six characters. 6EQUJ5. Secure just, sec what just. Yeah, it's effectively just an intergalactic vanity license plate. Sacred, science can be boring. Next up exoplanets. Hey, cool planets, just like Earth with the perfect conditions for live. Hell these things even have their own NASA posters. Surely will find aliens there, right? Wow. Right now we search for exoplanets using instruments like test the transiting exoplanets survey satellite. Test finds planets by monitoring stars to see drops in their brightness caused by a planet passing in front. As far as finding perfect alien planets, that's the equivalent of choosing your husband because he walked in front of the screen at the movies. Still test has found more than 500 exoplanet candidates, and in April 2019, it found its first Earth sized world Now that's cool. Stars, they're just like us. Well, no, because while it could look like this, right now it looks like this. And that's not even the exo-planet, that's its star. Also, it's called HD 21749C. Science Boring. Okay, so this is the alien episode surely we have something really cool and weird that we're doing in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Well, you're in luck because I have some 100% real ,100% bonkers 80 factoids for you. Could I get something in a YouTube conspiracy theorists filter for this next feed? Thank you. First up let's talk about the Pentagon's secret UFO program. All right. In 2017 the New York Times reported that the feds spent 22 million dollars on a secret program at the Pentagon to look into reports of unidentified flying objects. Apparently defense defunded the program in 2012 but it might still exist. WAKE UP SHEEPLE. You want more UFO's. Good, according to a Politico report from April 2019, the US Navy is working on procedures to report unidentified aircraft so quote, incursions, can be made to the quote, authorities. Which we all know is code for the Freemasons are building a secret UFO database. And finally, adjust your hearing membranes, lizard people. Cuz it turns out we were the aliens all along. Remember back in 2017 when the ��Oumuamua asteroid floated into our lives? We now know it's an icy comet, but back then, Harvard scientists thought it could be a, quote, fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth's vicinity by an alien civilization. Not only that but some scientists believe interstellar objects like Oumuamua could provide enough insulation and radiation protection to preserve living organisms on an interstellar journey. It's a process called panspermia. Yikes. What if that's how life on earth started? What if we all came here as tiny microbes on an asteroid smashing into earth And where does weddings get reawakened by the heat no toes, makes me think. Of course, that's all the wildly theoretical and highly speculative stuff of science fiction films. It was just a comet not an asteroid. And there are no lizard people. Hello hydro. We got this of the conspiracy theories. The Seti Institute says that we could find extra tourist [UNKNOWN] intelligence within the next two decades. It turns that science isn't so boring afterall. Alright. That's it for this week's episode of watch the space. If you enjoy that program, and please remember to click the like button on your note and subscribe to get more space news as it happens. Say that good Night and God faith