Two Japanese observatories have started looking for signs of extraterrestrial life, one using a radio telescope, the other an optical telescope.

"I don't think it would be any wonder if life like us exists somewhere else as space is vast," says Mitsumi Fujishita, radioastronomy professor at Kyushu Tokai University, who heads the research.

There have been earlier Japanese efforts to detect signs of aliens but this is the first such search involving a state-run organisation, say the researchers.

The five-day search is being done jointly at the Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory and the state-run Mizusawa Astrogeodynamics Observatory

The Nishi-Harima observatory, with a 2 metre reflector telescope, aims to detect light, while the Mizusawa observatory is using a radio telescope with a diameter of 10 metres to try to find radio waves.

They will focus on the area near the Hydra constellation where a US researcher detected radio waves in 1988.

I'm going to try to find out if Mizusawa will publish the star they are looking at and then I'll put SETI Net on that star as well. The odds are small that they will tell me.

Article from News in Science