Scientists from the privately-funded SETI Institute and the Very Large Array (VLA) observatory in New Mexico have joined forces to sweep the entire sky for traces of any extraterrestrial life, The Guardian reported on Saturday.
According to the plan, while the VLA - one of the world's most powerful observatories, will continue its operations as normal, all data will go through a supercomputer that will search for beeps, squawks and other signs of extraterrestrial technology.
"Determining whether we are alone in the universe as technologically capable life is among the most compelling questions in science, and [our] telescopes can play a major role in answering it," said Tony Beasley, director of The National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
The project is just one of many that were envisioned during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in Seattle on Friday.
Another project stipulates the creation of an observatory called Panoseti that is designed to watch large portions of the sky simultaneously in search of transient signals.