Posted: Mon, Mar 17, 2003, 10:12 AM ET (1512 GMT)
Scientists involved with a search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) project plan to conduct a study this week of up to 150 stars from which past searches have found unusual signals. University of California Berkeley scientists plan to use the giant Arecibo radio telescope March 18-20 to investigate 150 spots in the sky that past searches have uncovered strong or otherwise unusual signals that could possibly be from an extraterrestrial civilization. The signals come from data collected in past observations efforts from Arecibo that were analyzed by participants in the SETI@home distributed computing project, started in May 1999. Dan Wertheimer, the SETI@home chief scientist, said that the odds of any of those unusual signals actually coming from extraterrestrials to be one in 10,000; most likely the source of the signal is a passing satellite or technical glitch.

Related Links:

•  University of California Berkeley press release
•  SPACE.com article
•  Newsweek article
•  UPI article