I'm a 19 year old guy living in Copenhagen, Denmark. I work as a junior copywriter for an advertising agency and also work freelance for ESA where I maintain the Hubble Image Archive.
Astronomy has been a hobby of mine since I was 6 years old. I remember driving in our car with my dad and asking him about the wonders of the heavens. My all-time favourite topic was the immense power of shuttles and rockets. And I was convinced that one day I would travel to the stars.
The interest in astronomy accumulated and later on I began working for the Planetarium in Denmark where I was a tour guide in the Mars area. And finally I got the job at ESA in Germany.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
I'm almost certain that extraterrestrial life exists. Why wouldn't it. Saying that we are the only lifeform in the Universe is in my eyes somewhat arrogant. But whether or not we will find intelligent life is more questionable. The chance that the technologies we and they use are compatible is not necessarily great. But on the other hand it could be.
Finding extraterrestrial life is of course the whole idea of the project. And critics that say that we should close down the project because of lacking results lack themselves to see how important it is for us to do the attempt. If we hadn't explored the seas, we wouldn't have found America. If we dont' explore the heavens, who knows what we might miss out on?
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.
