Interview with Jill Tarter

While I was at the January 2008 meeting of the AAS, I stopped by the SETI booth and chatted with Dr. Jill Tarter. SETI received a very healthy dose of money from Paul Allen to build 350 radio dishes so they can monitor the sky for alien signals. She talks a bit about the array in the interview:

As I note in the video notes, I wanted to edit out her slip of the tongue about Mike Griffin, but I couldn’t because there was no place to splice the footage. Oh well, it’ll be here for all eternity, I suppose.

February 18th, 2008 5:29 PM by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Cool stuff, Science, Video Blog | 7 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

7 Responses to “Interview with Jill Tarter”

1. bjswift Says:
February 18th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

I was at the ATA booth on Friday talking to Jack Welch and got to catch up with him, but now I’m bummed that I didn’t get to chat with Jill!
2. bjswift Says:
February 18th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Interesting note about the handout in the video: that image of the Andromeda Galaxy was produced with ONE pointing of the ATA!
3. Max Fagin Says:
February 18th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

Isn’t Jill Tarter supposed to be who Ellie Arroway from Contact was based on?
4. Max Fagin Says:
February 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

Oops, never mind maybe I should watch the clip before posting. Sorry
5. Harold Says:
February 18th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

Off-topic: Don’t forget about Wednesday night’s lunar eclipse! (Thursday morning for a lot o’ them funny-talkin’ foreigners on the other side of the Atlantic.)
6. Chip Says:
February 18th, 2008 at 11:15 pm

I attended her lecture recently in Sacramento. The Q&A session that followed was interesting as she answered audience questions with clarity and imagination.
7. Irishman Says:
February 19th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

Starr/Greg, write better and then it won’t matter what Phil writes people will still read your stuff.

About Bad Astronomy

Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.

The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.

Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com




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