The Universal Question
 
 
Event Dates
5th century BC Greek philosopher Anaxagoras’ theory of panspermia
5th century BC
The possibility of extra-terrestrial life debated on by Ancient Greek scholars such as Thales and Aristotle
6th and 7th centuries BC
Talmud states that at least 18 000 other worlds exist
 
Bishop of Paris, Etienne Tempier, argues that God could have created more than one world.
1277
Miller-Urey experiment 1953
Frank Drake launches first ever SETI experiment 1960
Drake Equation 1961
First successful flyby of Mars- Mariner 4 1965
First physical message sent into space- Pioneer Plaque 1972
Arceibo Message sent into space
1974
SETI volunteer Jerry Ehman finds Wow Signal 1977
Launch of Project SERENDIP 1979
Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, Louis Friedman found US Planetary Society 1980
SETI Launch of Project Phoenix 1995
Launch of SETI@home 1999
NASA scientists (Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke) report findings of strong evidence of present life on Mars 2005
NASA denies these claims, Stoker backs off of initial assertions 2005
FSA launches COROT mission, searching for extrasolar planets 2006
NASA will launch Keppler Mission, searching for extrasolar planets- 2008
The ESA will launch the Darwin Mission that will try to find Earth-like planets and analyze their atmospheres 2020
Timeline
Carol Stoker
Larry Lemke