What is BOINC SETI@Home?

SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is a scientific effort seeking to determine if there is intelligent life outside Earth. SETI researchers use many methods. One popular method, radio SETI, listens for artificial radio signals coming from other stars. SETI@home is a radio SETI project that lets anyone with a computer and an Internet connection participate.

SETI@home harnesses the power of hundreds of thousands of Internet connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. There\'s a small but captivating possibility that your computer will detect the faint murmur of a civilization beyond Earth.

Seti@home uses the largest telescope in the world, the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, to continuously scan the sky for radio signals. So far, nearly all of the sky visible from the Arecibo telescope has been scanned at least once. As time progresses, Arecibo passes over the same point several times. This benefits Seti@home, because it allows us to distinguish between signals that occur due to radio frequency interference and actual extraterrestrial signals. After the data are recorded onto tapes at Arecibo, they are shipped back to the Seti@home lab in Berkeley, California. The data are then broken up into workunits, which are sent out to the client screensaver program for analysis.

Results are returned to Berkeley after processing and validated against other users\' results - a quoram is formed and from that the credits that will be awarded are determined. Each user that processed the same workunit receives that credit award. Credits build up over time as more and more work is done by each user.

BOINCUK & Lookers Help Information Section.