Images: Detecting extraterrestrial life

Rather than search for deliberate broadcasts, the Mileura Wide-Field Array radio telescope aims to pick up signals that may be leaked accidentally from planets as far as 30 light-years away. "We may pick up spurious signals from people that never meant for us to hear them and get an inkling that something's going on," said David Aguilar, director of communications at the Center for Astrophysics.

Photo by Credit: Brian Corey/Haystack