The SETI League, Inc. Images of the Week for 2015

SETI League Photo Gallery

Images of the Week for 2015

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Artist Daniela de Paulis presented an update on the New Horizons (One Earth) message initiative, during the SETI Science and Technology session at the recent International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem.

SETI League photo

26 December 2015

Italian mathematician Claudio Maccone discusses the use of the relativistic KLT to detect transient signals from hypothesized extraterrestrial spacecraft, during the SETI Science and Technology session at the recent International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem.

SETI League photo

19 December 2015

During the SETI Science and Technology session at the recent International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem, Canadian geologist Lori Walton, a SETI League Regional Coordinator, discusses SETI searches for large scale technosignatures.

SETI League photo

12 December 2015

Opening the session on SETI Science and Technology at the recent International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem, Prof. Amri Wandel of Hebrew University presents the annual Rufolf Pesek Lecture, titled "How Abundant is Life in Space?"

SETI League photo

5 December 2015

Both ancient and contemporary Israeli music and dance were showcased during Opening Ceremonies at last month's International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem.

SETI League photo

28 November 2015

Opening Ceremonies at the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem last month began with students carrying in the flags of all participating nations.

SETI League photo

21 November 2015

At the IAA Academy Day which preceded the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem last month, the IAA Climate Change panel equated humanity to astronauts aboard a spacecreaft whose life support system is malfunctioning.

SETI League photo

14 November 2015

Johann-Dietrich Woerner, the new Director General of the European Space Agency, shared his vision for space exploration during IAA Academy Day at the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem last month.

SETI League photo

7 November 2015

Several SETI League members were among the 200 Academicians gathered for the IAA Academy Day at the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem earlier this month.

SETI League photo

31 October 2015

SETI League executive director emeritus H. Paul Shuch meet with International Academy of Astronautics president Madhavan Nair during Academy Day at the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem last week.

SETI League photo

24 October 2015

At the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem earlier this week, SETI League executive director emeritus H. Paul Shuch (right) congratulates Pete Warden on his election to the SETI Permanent Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics. Formerly the director of the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View CA, Warden now contributes to SETI science as head of the Breakthru Listen initiative.

SETI League photo

17 October 2015

From Spain, EB3FRN tweeted this waterfall display showing aircraft scattering of the 114.3 MHz Barcelona VHF omnidirectional radio beacon, some 90 km distant. The curved lines crossing the vertical axis show Doppler shift imposed by the relative motion of the aircraft. Follow his other detections on Twitter, at @eb3frn.

EB3FRN image

10 October 2015

Our Executive Director's new motorcycle (see last week's Featured Photo) replaced this 1989 Honda Pacific Coast, which Paul drove to The SETI League office occasionally over the past two decades. Here it is seen in its final run, the 9/11 Memorial Ride last month.

Rick Karp photo

3 October 2015

UFO? Not exactly. This is our Executive Director's new set of wheels. -- three (count 'em). Paul reports, "not only does it look like a spacecraft, this motorcycle really flies!"

N6TX photo

26 September 2015

From England, M0EYT tweeted this waterfall downlink detection of Yutu, the Chinese lunar rover, received at 8462.02881 MHz on 28 August 2015. Follow him on Twitter, at @UHF_Satcom.

M0EYT image

19 September 2015

In Florida, Carl (AA2JZ) is receiving "whistler" signals from Jupiter on 20.1 MHz, using this homebrew Jove receiver along with a 24 foot dipole antenna.

AA2JZ photo

12 September 2015

Pat AA6EG has been building waveguide horn antennas inspired by our SETI Horn of Plenty design. He writes: "Home depot aluminized foam panel; 1" thick at $20/4 x 8 sheet. ~20 dBi @ 23cm. Complete horn from one 4 x 8 sheet."

AA6EG photo

5 September 2015

Tom Hagen, vice president of our sister organization SARA (the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers), is building this horn antenna, based upon our SETI Horn of Plenty design, for use in his hydrogen line radio telescope.

Tom Hagen photo

29 August 2015

Member James Van Hise built this horn antenna, based upon our SETI Horn of Plenty design, to drive a SpectraCyber receiver in his hydrogen line radio telescope. It appears to be fixed in azimuth, but adjustable in elevation for meridian transit use.

James Van Hise photo

22 August 2015

Since its discovery in 2005, Pluto's moon Hydra has been known only as a fuzzy dot of uncertain shape, size, and reflectivity. Imaging obtained during New Horizons' historic transit of the Pluto-Charon system has definitively resolved these fundamental properties of Pluto's outermost moon. Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) observations revealed an irregularly shaped body characterized by significant brightness variations over the surface. With a resolution of 2 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel, the LORRI image shows the tiny potato-shaped moon measures 27 miles (43 kilometers) by 20 miles (33 kilometers). Like that of Charon, Hydra's surface is probably covered with water ice, the most abundant ice in the universe. Observed within Hydra's bright regions is a darker circular structure with a diameter of approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers). Hydra's reflectivity is intermediate between that of Pluto and Charon. "New Horizons has finally nailed the basic physical properties of Hydra," says Hal Weaver, New Horizons Project Scientist and LORRI science operations lead. "We're going to see Hydra even better in the images yet to come." Hydra was approximately 400,000 miles away from New Horizons when the image was acquired.

LORRI image

15 August 2015

This image of an area on Pluto's largest moon Charon has a captivating feature—a depression with a peak in the middle, shown here in the upper left corner of the inset. The image shows an area approximately 240 miles (390 kilometers) from top to bottom, including few visible craters. “The most intriguing feature is a large mountain sitting in a moat,” said Jeff Moore with NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, who leads New Horizons’ Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team. “This is a feature that has geologists stunned and stumped.” This image gives a preview of what the surface of this large moon will look like in future close-ups from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. This image is heavily compressed; sharper versions are anticipated when the full-fidelity data from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) are returned to Earth. The rectangle superimposed on the global view of Charon shows the approximate location of this close-up view.

LORRI image

8 August 2015

In the center left of Pluto’s vast heart-shaped feature – informally named “Tombaugh Regio” - lies a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains and has been informally named Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), after Earth’s first artificial satellite. The surface appears to be divided into irregularly-shaped segments that are ringed by narrow troughs. Features that appear to be groups of mounds and fields of small pits are also visible. This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). Features as small as one-half mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. The blocky appearance of some features is due to compression of the image.

LORRI image

1 August 2015

On 15 July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft sent back this close-up image of a region near Pluto’s equator revealing a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body. The mountains likely formed no more than 100 million years ago -- mere youngsters relative to the 4.56-billion-year age of the solar system -- and may still be in the process of building, says Jeff Moore of New Horizons’ Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI). That suggests the close-up region, which covers less than one percent of Pluto’s surface, may still be geologically active today.

LORRI image

25 July 2015

During his visit to AMSAT-DL headquarters in Bochum, Germany in March, Jeffrey Pawlan, WA6KBL, took this picture of the control room for their 20 meter diameter dish (seen as last week's Featured Photo).

WA6KBL photo

18 July 2015

Jeffrey Pawlan, WA6KBL, passes along this photo of the Sternwarte 20 meter dish at AMSAT-DL headquarters in Bochum, Germany, which he visited in March. The antenna was totally refurbished by German radio amateurs, for use in tracking various deep space probes.

WA6KBL photo

11 July 2015

David Fields, N4HBO, reports that First Light was achieved two weeks ago with the RASDR software defined receiver, driven by the SETI Horn of Plenty antenna. David writes, "The horn with a good LNA is actually about as sensitive as my 4.5m dish (much less resolution though)." RASDR is an initiative of our sister organization, the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers.

N4HBO image

4 July 2015

This archival photo shows the participants in a SETI symposium titled "Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man," held at Boston Universary on 20 November 1972. SETI League members will doubtless recognize Phil Morrison and Carl Sagan.

archival photo

27 June 2015

The SETI League is deeply saddened to report the death last month of Peter Henry Cheasley, VE2TPR. Peter was a Life Member, an enthusiastic SETI League supporter, and an early and active participant in our Project Argus all-sky survey. He was 79.

Gilles Milot photo

20 June 2015

SETI League president Richard Factor (WA2IKL) and EME Chairman Al Katz (K2UYH) met recently at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff AZ (seen here standing in front of Percival Lowell's car).

WA2IKL photo

13 June 2015

Executive director emeritus Prof. H. Paul Shuch lecturing on the electromagnetic spectrum last month at Balticon 49, the Baltimore Science Fiction Society's 2015 convention.

SETI League photo

6 June 2015

This photo of the control room for the Owens Valley Radio Observatory's 40 foot radio telescope in California was provided by our sister organization, the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA).

SARA photo

30 May 2015

At Oak Ridge National Laboratory last autumn, mathematician Michael Minovitch, the father of gravity assist acceleration (now used for nearly all interplanetary spacecraft missions), signs his name to one of the Cray computer units of the Titan, the world's second most powerful supercomputer.

Patricia Copeland photo

23 May 2015

Following the 2014 Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop last autumn, many attendees participated in a tour of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

SETI League photo

16 May 2015

At the 2014 Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop last autumn in Oak Ridge TN, the Communications track (which included at least two SETI league members) discussed the challenges and opportunities of interstellar communications.

Amarak Panya photo

9 May 2015

Rob Swinney, David Fields, and H. Paul Shuch discussing the British Interplanetary Society's Project Icarus Initiative, at the 2014 Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop last autumn in Oak Ridge TN.

SETI League photo

2 May 2015

During last week's Annual Meeting, SETI League president Richard Factor and secretary/treasurer Heather Wood gathered around the speakerphone, conversing with executive director H. Paul Shuch, who participated via teleconference from his office in Pennsylvania.

WA2IKL photo

25 April 2015

SETI League members David Fields and H. Paul Shuch met last October with NASA scientist Les Johnson, at the 2014 Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop in Oak Ridge TN.

SETI League photo

18 April 2015

At the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, mathematician and SETI League member Claudio Maccone emphasized that "SETI is a profoundly mathematical topic."

SETI League photo

11 April 2015

At the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, dolphin researcher Denise Herzing addressed the challenge of non-human communications.

SETI League photo

4 April 2015

University of Arizona mathematician Carl DeVito, who was elected to the IAA SETI Permanent Committee at the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, suggests that, for SETI science, it's "Time to Consolidate."

SETI League photo

28 March 2015

Last October, Australian physicist and science journalist Morris Jones spoke enthusiastically about cryptosociology and SETI at the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto. Dr. Jones was voted a member of the IAA SETI Permanent Committee at the conference.

SETI League photo

21 March 2015

In memory of SETI enthusiast and noted SF/Fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett, who was summoned by DEATH on Thursday, 12 March, Dr. SETI shares the title page of his personal copy of this, Terry's first Discworld novel. Paul says "this is probably the only Pratchett autograph ever to include a SETI detection waveform!"

SETI League image

14 March 2015

The SETI League is saddened to report the death last month of longtime member Prof. Albert Harrison. A respected SETI researcher involved in the societal aspects of contact, Al contributed the chapter After Contact, Then What? to our Executive Director's 2011 book Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Al served with Paul on the IAA SETI Committee, and he contributed to SearchLites, our quarterly newsletter. Al is further remembered here.

UC Davis photo

7 March 2015

Isaac Shivers, a doctoral student in astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, very ably represented the next generation of SETI scientists at the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto.

SETI League photo

28 February 2015

Last week marked 85 years since the discovery of Pluto (then designated our ninth planet; subsequently reclassified as a Dwarf Planet in 2006) . Happy 85th Plutoversary, Clyde Tombaugh!

archival photo

21 February 2015

Michael Garrett, director of ASTRON in the Netherlands, delivers the Rudolph Pesek keynote lecture, opening the IAC SETI 1 session at the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto. Dr. Garrett and SETI League executive director emeritus Prof. H. Paul Shuch serve as co-vice-chairs of the IAA SETI Permanent Committee.

SETI League photo

14 February 2015

The SETI Science and Technology session at the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto drew 40 attendees, to hear seven presentations.

SETI League photo

7 February 2015

The SETI League is saddened to report the passing this week of Nobel laureate Charlie Townes, best remembered as the inventor of the MASER and co-inventor of the LASER. Prof. Townes was 99. He was less well known as the father of Optical SETI. In 1961, Charles H. Townes authored the first scientific paper proposing interstellar communication via lasers.

SETI League photo

31 January 2015

SETI League supporters Lori Walton, Stephane Dumas, and Denise Herzing were among the thousands of space enthusiasts attending the Opening Ceremonies of the 65th International Astronautics Congress in Toronto on 29 September 2014.

SETI League photo

24 January 2015

With 4000 rocket scientists in attendance, the 65th International Astronautics Congress in Toronto was officially opened on 29 September 2014 by bagpipes and Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

SETI League photo

17 January 2015

At the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto last October, SETI League regional coordinator Stephane Dumas encounters his first Little Green Man.

SETI League photo

10 January 2015

SETI League regional coordinator Steve Carver, K5PT, gave a SETI presentation at the November 2014 meeting of the Arkansas River Valley Amateur Radio Foundation. It was covered thus in the December issue of the ARVARF newsletter: "Steve Carver, K5PT, gave us a great presentation at our last meeting on his many years involvement with ham radio and SETI in particular. Steve presented his experiences, frustrations and successes and gave us a good understanding of what we just might find out there. Hint: They're pretending they're not home."

ARVARF photo

3 January 2015

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