Since then, SETI has been dependent on foundations and private donors for funding. However, fervor to decrease the federal deficit and a lack of support from other scientists and aerospace contractors made it an easy program to cut. While there were, and still are, questions about whether we could find evidence of extraterrestrial life, most informed parties agreed that SETI was pursuing worthwhile and valid science. Less than a year after founding the program, NASA withdrew funds from SETI due to pressures. Nearly two billion channels were examined for each target star. Instead of broadly scanning the sky, Project Phoenix targeted Sun-like stars within 200 light years since they were believed to be the most likely stars to have a planet capable of supporting life, and thus possibly intelligent life. Still, SETI was able to obtain two three-week observing sessions on Arecibo, the world’s largest radio telescope, each year between 19. Unfortunately, this dependence on existing equipment meant that there were multiple projects competing for observing time. Despite this, Project Phoenix was still the world’s most sensitive and comprehensive search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Arroway’s research, Project Phoenix heavily relied on existing radio telescopes, such as Arecibo. These are considered the “signature” of an “intelligent” radio transmission. One of SETI’s first projects, Project Phoenix, used radio telescopes to search for narrow-band radio signals, or signals that are at only one spot on the radio dial. The story in Contact closely parallels the story of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI). This includes more than 20 planets discovered as of 2019 and the all-important star of the film, Vega. The closest star, Proxima Centauri, is only four light years away, which means any aliens on the planets orbiting Proxima Centauri would be singing along with Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” The television signal featuring Hitler at the 1936 Olympic games would have been traveling through space for 61 years, meaning any planet within 30 light years from Earth could have received the signal and sent it back to Earth. That means, when Contact was released in 1997, our solar system would have still been listening to the greatest hits of 1997, like the number one Billboard song “I’ll Be Missing You” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans, not broadcasts of the Kennedy assassination like we hear at Jupiter during the opening sequence. However, our own solar system is small in comparison to this vast bubble since it spans just a few light hours across. These signals have gone well beyond our solar system and out to the nearest stars. This has created what scientists call the “radio bubble,” an ever-expanding sphere with Earth at the center, that spans over 200 light years and announces humanity’s presence to the cosmos. This means that in one year, a signal will travel one light year into space. These signals leave Earth and travel at the speed of light. Humanity has been transmitting television and radio signals into deep space for over a hundred years. While the premise of the sequence has its basis in science, the scale is completely wrong. Eventually there is silence as the audience is taken into deep space and past beautiful sights like the Eagle Nebula. These sounds, which are radio and television signals traveling out into space, get older and older as we zoom past planets and asteroids. As the camera travels away from Earth, the audience hears a cacophony of sounds. The opening sequence of Contact sets the scientific basis for the rest of the film. Would it matter if it was first detected by scientists from your home country? Would the content of the signal matter? Would you want the chance to be able to meet the alien civilization that sent the signal? These are all questions that the movie Contact explores. How would you react if you found out we aren’t alone in the universe? Imagine the moment you discover a radio signal from another civilization had traveled billions of miles through interstellar space, had been detected by some of the most powerful radio telescopes in the world, and decoded by scientists. From The Science of Sci-Fi Cinema: Essays on the Art and Principles of Ten Films © 2021 Edited by Vincent Piturro by permission of McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640.
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