Search for E.T. gets financial boost

Private funds will make listening data publicly available

telescope looking for life

LOOKING FOR LIFE  The Parkes (right) and Green Bank (middle) radio telescopes, as well as the Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory (left), will aid in the hunt for alien transmissions.

O. Alexandrov, CC BY-SA 3.0 (left); NRAO/AUI/NSF (middle); David McClenaghan, CSIRO (right)

First contact with an alien civilization might now be in the hands of a Russian billionaire.