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New search methods are ramping up the hunt for alien intelligence

Six decades of radio silence hasn’t stopped scientists from seeking E.T.

Telescope and night sky

Astronomers are enlisting new technologies in the quest to answer one of the most intriguing research questions of all: Are we alone in the universe?

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By Maria Temming

For about a week in 1960, radio astronomer Frank Drake thought he might have discovered aliens.

He had pointed the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s new 26-meter telescope at the star Epsilon Eridani on April 8 of that year, and within minutes, the instruments went wild.