Is E.T. flashing us?

Harvard recently broke ground for a new telescope to look for extraterrestrial beacons. This instrument will be capable of covering a million times more celestial space than the present instrument the University uses for its alien search. “A high-intensity pulsed laser, teamed with a moderate sized telescope, forms an efficient interstellar beacon,” says Physics Professor Paul Horowitz. “To a distant observer in the direction of its slender beam, it would appear as a brief pulse a thousand times brighter than our sun. We’ve had such technology for years, so we presume anyone interested in contacting us would also have it.” The project is known as Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (OSETI). The new 72-inch telescope will be the first earthly “eye” ever built to continuously search the skies for light that would change our world like nothing else in history.