Some 50,000 people in Japan are currently taking part in a worldwide endeavor to link their personal computers together in an attempt to catch any message from outer space that might signal the existence of another life form. Joining the project are students at Kokushikan High School, a private school in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
They are among the roughly 2.8 million people from around the globe who may have the opportunity to witness the historic moment of first contact with other forms of life.
It is part of a project first suggested by Dan Werthimer, a professor at the Space Science Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.