Jill Tarter, the astronomer who was the real-life basis for the alien-hunting character played by Jodi Foster in the film Contact, is stepping down as director of the non-profit SETI Institute's Center for SETI Research.
"My colleague Dr. Gerry Harp will step into the directorship role to continue our strong tradition of excellent research, freeing me up to focus on finding stable funding for it," Tarter, who joined the SETI project in the 1970s when it was run by NASA, said in a statement on Tuesday. "I want to make the endowment of SETI research a success, so that my colleagues now, and in the future, can focus on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence for all of us."
Tarter, 68, took over as director of research at the privately funded SETI Institute when government support ended in 1993. Short for "search for extraterrestrial intelligence," SETI under Tarter's watch has overseen numerous research projects aimed at detecting alien life in the cosmos.
One such project Tarter is credited with spearheading is Project Phoenix, a massive coordination of large-antenna radio receivers on three continents used to monitor electromagnetic radiation for signs of intentional transmissions that would indicate intelligent senders.
The celebrated alien hunter's life was the inspiration for Project Argus director Ellie Arroway, the protagonist of Carl Sagan's 1985 novel Contact and the 1997 film of the same name. In the fictionalized account, Project Argus' efforts succeed in detecting communications for an extraterrestrial intelligence, something that Tarter and the SETI Institute have yet to accomplish.
"SETI research experiments are funded by private donations, limiting how quickly we can search these newly discovered planets for intelligent life. The best reason to support SETI research is because it is an investment in our own future," Tarter said in announcing her retirement this week.
Tarter's move to a fund-raising role for the SETI Institute highlights the financial struggles the project has endured in recent years. The institute's Alien Telescope Array (ATA) was shut down temporarily in 2011 before a fundraising drive succeeded in reviving the effort last September.
One of the donors to the cause was Foster, who said at the time, "The Allen Telescope Array could turn science fiction into science fact, but only if it is actively searching the skies."
Tarter said that the discovery of Earth-like planets by NASA's Kepler spacecraft in recent years has made the continued pursuit of signs of extraterrestrial life more important than ever.
"Kepler has been a paradigm shift—starting with the first data release in 2010 and second in 2011 and third in 2012, we have altered our SETI search strategy. We are no longer pointing our telescopes at Sun-like stars in hopes of finding something; we are now observing stars where we know there are planets," she said.
Like the fictional heroine of Contact, Tarter remains driven by the possibility that an extraterrestrial species could teach humanity how to plot a successful through current troubles to a better future.
"The scientist Phil Morrison said that, 'SETI is the archeology of the future.' Think about it. If we detect a signal, we could learn about their past, because of the time their signal took to reach us, and the possibility of our future," she said.
"Successful detection means that, on average, technologies last for a long time," Tarter continued. "That's the only way another technological civilization can overlap with us in time and space. Understanding that it is possible to find solutions to our terrestrial problems and to become a very old civilization, because someone else has managed to do just that, is hugely important! Knowing that there can be a future may motivate us to achieve it."
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