full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jill Tarter: Join the SETI search

Unscramble the Blue Letters


SETI doesn't presume the existence of extra terrestrial intelligence; it merely notes the possibility, if not the probability in this vast universe, which seems fairly uniform. The numbers suggest a universe of possibilities. Our sun is one of 400 billion stars in our gxalay, and we know that many other stars have pnetalray setymss. We've dcvsioreed over 350 in the last 14 yares, including the small planet, announced earlier this week, which has a radius just twice the size of the Earth. And, if even all of the planetary systems in our galaxy were devoid of life, there are still 100 billion other galaxies out there, altogether 10^22 stars. Now, I'm going to try a trick, and recreate an experiment from this morning. rmebeemr, one billion? But, this time not one billion dollars, one billion stars. Alright, one billion srats. Now, up there, 20 feet above the stage, that's 10 trillion. Well, what about 10^22? Where's the line that marks that? That line would have to be 3.8 million miels above this stage. (lateughr) 16 times farther away than the moon, or four pcneert of the distance to the sun.

Open Cloze


SETI doesn't presume the existence of extra terrestrial intelligence; it merely notes the possibility, if not the probability in this vast universe, which seems fairly uniform. The numbers suggest a universe of possibilities. Our sun is one of 400 billion stars in our ______, and we know that many other stars have _________ _______. We've __________ over 350 in the last 14 _____, including the small planet, announced earlier this week, which has a radius just twice the size of the Earth. And, if even all of the planetary systems in our galaxy were devoid of life, there are still 100 billion other galaxies out there, altogether 10^22 stars. Now, I'm going to try a trick, and recreate an experiment from this morning. ________, one billion? But, this time not one billion dollars, one billion stars. Alright, one billion _____. Now, up there, 20 feet above the stage, that's 10 trillion. Well, what about 10^22? Where's the line that marks that? That line would have to be 3.8 million _____ above this stage. (________) 16 times farther away than the moon, or four _______ of the distance to the sun.

Solution


  1. remember
  2. planetary
  3. systems
  4. stars
  5. percent
  6. years
  7. laughter
  8. discovered
  9. miles
  10. galaxy

Original Text


SETI doesn't presume the existence of extra terrestrial intelligence; it merely notes the possibility, if not the probability in this vast universe, which seems fairly uniform. The numbers suggest a universe of possibilities. Our sun is one of 400 billion stars in our galaxy, and we know that many other stars have planetary systems. We've discovered over 350 in the last 14 years, including the small planet, announced earlier this week, which has a radius just twice the size of the Earth. And, if even all of the planetary systems in our galaxy were devoid of life, there are still 100 billion other galaxies out there, altogether 10^22 stars. Now, I'm going to try a trick, and recreate an experiment from this morning. Remember, one billion? But, this time not one billion dollars, one billion stars. Alright, one billion stars. Now, up there, 20 feet above the stage, that's 10 trillion. Well, what about 10^22? Where's the line that marks that? That line would have to be 3.8 million miles above this stage. (Laughter) 16 times farther away than the moon, or four percent of the distance to the sun.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
billion stars 3
light years 3
bigger glasses 3
cosmic origins 2
intelligent life 2
planetary systems 2
jack hills 2
small planet 2
small part 2
ted community 2
complex signals 2


Important Words


  1. alright
  2. altogether
  3. announced
  4. billion
  5. devoid
  6. discovered
  7. distance
  8. dollars
  9. earlier
  10. earth
  11. existence
  12. experiment
  13. extra
  14. feet
  15. galaxies
  16. galaxy
  17. including
  18. laughter
  19. life
  20. line
  21. marks
  22. miles
  23. million
  24. moon
  25. morning
  26. notes
  27. numbers
  28. percent
  29. planet
  30. planetary
  31. possibilities
  32. possibility
  33. presume
  34. probability
  35. radius
  36. recreate
  37. remember
  38. seti
  39. size
  40. small
  41. stage
  42. stars
  43. suggest
  44. sun
  45. systems
  46. terrestrial
  47. time
  48. times
  49. trick
  50. trillion
  51. uniform
  52. universe
  53. vast
  54. week
  55. years