SETI (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a term that encompasses several different groups and their efforts to seek out intelligent extraterrestrial life. The driving force behind these groups is the ancient human desire to understand the origin and distribution of life throughout the Universe. As technology progresses, SETI efforts move from the study of extraterrestrial rocks and meteors towards scanning the skies for a variety of signal types.

Cornell University professor Frank Drake founded the first SETI program in late 1959. Drake reinforced his idea of scanning the skies with his famous Drake Equation. The Drake Equation predicts the abundance of intelligent life within a certain galaxy.

The second major development of SETI took shape in the late 1960s when NASA joined the program. NASA was minimally involved the project, but spawned many SETI related programs. These programs included the Microwave

The Very Large Array (VLA) is a...