Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, commonly abbreviated SETI, is the collective scientific effort to detect evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth, most commonly by scanning the sky for artificial radio or optical signals that would be difficult to produce by natural astrophysical processes. The effort began in earnest with Frank Drake's 1960 Project Ozma and has continued through programs including the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array and the privately funded Breakthrough Listen initiative, none of which has yet produced a confirmed detection. A small number of anomalous signals, most notably the 1977 Wow! signal, have drawn lasting attention without ever being conclusively explained or repeated.