Senior Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) astronomer Seth Shostak last night boldly claimed that mankind would certainly detect intelligent alien life by 2025, assuming the right technology is in place to probe 500 light years into space where there are doubtless thousands of ET radio stations transmitting into the ether.

Speaking at an event in San Francisco, Shostak declared: "We'll find ET within two dozen years."

The principal tool in tracking down Radio ET may well be the Allen Telescope Array, Shostak said. It's a Paul Allen-funded network of six-metre radio antennae operated by SETI and UC Berkeley radio astronomy lab which "could become strong enough" by 2025 to deliver the goods.

SETI was, of course, a NASA-funded project until the agency pulled the plug on it in the 1990s due to its "lack of success". It has for some time been running its SETI@home project in which volunteers' computers analyse radio telescope data in the hope they might pick up some sign of aliens chewing the fat over the airwaves. To date, extraterrestrial talk show hosts have proved elusive. ®

Related stories

• 'Exomoonologist': NASA can detect forest moon of Endor (4 September 2009)
• NASA: Extraterrestrial sample holds ingredient for alien life (18 August 2009)
• 'Alien' lifeform wakened from 120,000 year Arctic slumber (15 June 2009)
• Boffins: Bebo interstellar spam aliens don't exist after all (11 June 2009)
• Boffins develop interstellar alien ocean-spotting tool (27 May 2009)
• ISS space bio-experiment freezer to return on Discovery (18 March 2009)
• Boffin: Earthlike worlds within 30 lightyears of here (17 February 2009)
• NASA space tests 'interplanetary internet' protocol (19 November 2008)
• SETI@home needs You! (3 January 2008)
• Space brains resign over efforts to attract ET attention (17 December 2007)
• Allen telescope array begins alien hunt (12 October 2007)