Dear xxx:
SETI@home needs your help!
In the last few months SETI@home has made great steps forward thanks to the generosity of volunteers like you. In October, SETI@home received donations that allowed us to make the exciting purchase of new high-performance servers. Over the last month, the project has been in an outage as the team here at UC Berkeley has worked tirelessly to clean up the databases and complete a full server migration. This will allow the project to run more smoothly than it ever has before. Without the support of user donations, this major upgrade to the project would not have been possible.
Though the SETI@home project has been active for over ten years, we are still branching out and exploring new scientific directions. As you may know, the data that your computer analyzes comes from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. While Arecibo is an immensely powerful telescope, it cannot see the entire sky. In the coming year, we hope to be able to start collecting data at The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, allowing us to listen in on parts of the sky that, up until now, we have not been able to reach.
Furthermore, in February of 2011, NASA is slated to release data from the Kepler Mission, containing the location of several new exoplanets that could potentially be home to intelligent life. In 2011, we hope to perform a targeted search of the Kepler field, looking for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth. This search would also be done at the Green Bank Telescope.
In order to carry out these exciting new plans, we would like to ask you again for your support. SETI@home has always been a collaborative effort on a global scale; there is no other project on Earth that is quite as dependent on the help and contributions of the global public. In order to keep SETI@home up and running, as well as accomplish this year's scientific goals, we need your help. To make a secure tax-deductible donation click here, which will take you to a page of instructions on how to donate online or through mail via check. Any amount that you are willing to donate this holiday season would be a great help. Your contribution will not only allow SETI@home to continue to run as it has for the past ten years, but also provide the opportunity to expand the search for intelligent life in exciting new directions. These efforts represent our best chance at answering the ever-elusive question: Are we alone?
Thank you for your support and continuing dedication to SETI@Home.
Sincerely,
Arielle Little, Student Intern
Dr. Eric Korpela, Project Scientist
