Editing Project Phoenix (SETI) (section)

{{refimprove|date=September 2014}}
'''Project Phoenix''' was a [[Search for extraterrestrial intelligence|SETI]] project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence by analyzing patterns in radio signals. It was run by the independently funded [[SETI Institute]] of [[Mountain View, California]], U.S.

Project Phoenix started work in February 1995 with the [[Parkes Observatory|Parkes radio telescope]] located in [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]], the largest telescope in the [[Southern Hemisphere]].

Between September 1996 and April 1998, the Project used the [[Green Bank Observatory|National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank]] in [[Green Bank, West Virginia]], U.S.

Rather than attempting to scan the whole sky for messages, the Project concentrated on nearby systems that are similar to our own. Project Phoenix's targets comprised about 800 stars with a 200 [[light-year]] range.

The Project searched for radio signals as narrow as 1&nbsp;Hz between 1,000 and 3,000&nbsp;MHz: a broad bandwidth compared with most SETI searches.

In March 2004 the Project announced that after checking the 800 stars on its list, it had failed to find any evidence of extraterrestrial signals.<ref name="BBCNews20040325">{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3567729.stm |title=Radio search for ET draws a blank |first=David |last=Whitehouse |date=25 March 2004 |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> Project leader Peter Backus remarked that they had been forced to conclude that "we live in a quiet neighborhood".<ref name="BBCNews20040325"/>