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(meteorobs) Astronomy in 'Contact'



Hi guys -

For your info...  This was posted on our RASC e-mail list by an RASC member
from Arlington, Virginia.

Lew suggested that, although slightly off-topic, that a number of you might
be interested.  There are, by the way, some meteors in the movie.... ;)

- Cathy

******************************************************

Date:  Sat, 12 Jul 1997 10:02:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: LisaJain@aol.com
Subject: RASC List:  Real Life Contact & SETI
Found this on a list.

Lisa Jain Thompson
Arlington, Virginia USA
RASC-Toronto Member at Large

http://starpoet.com

> SETI Star-Bound in `Contact'
> Mountain View institute's search for ETs sets pace in sci-fi film
> 
> PETER STACK, Chronicle Staff Writer
> 
>        Astronomy may be the name of the game at the Search for
>        Extraterrestrial Intelligence institute in Mountain
>        View, but these days you don't have to search hard to
>        find a different kind of star there.
> 
>        Check out the autographed portrait of actress Jodie
>        Foster greeting visitors in the lobby. After mentions in
>        ``Independence Day'' and ``The Arrival'' last year, the
>        SETI institute is about to become a movie star. Foster's
>        big-budget sci-fi film ``Contact,'' from ``Forrest
>        Gump'' director Robert Zemeckis, opens Friday. Foster's
>        character is based on SETI astronomer Jill Cornell
>        Tarter.
>
>        In the film, adapted from the late Carl Sagan's popular
>        1985 novel, Foster plays an astronomer leading a team in
>        the quest in which SETI is a pacesetter. The outfit east
>        of Highway 101 is one of the world's most prestigious
>        encampments of scientists looking for signs of life on
>        other planets. Tarter, a Berkeley resident who is a
>        distant relative of Cornell University founder Ezra
>        Cornell, is already a big star in science. ``Carl Sagan
>        didn't write a book about me, he wrote a book about a
>        woman who does what I do,'' said Tarter, a longtime
>        friend of the author-astronomer, who died in December at
>        62.
> 
>        Tarter, 53, took a rare break last week from an
>        observation shift at SETI for an interview. Her team of
>        Pro ject Phoenix astronomers works 24 hours a day, seven
>        days a week, searching for extraterrestrial life.
> 
>        ``Carl did his homework,'' she said. ``When I read the
>        book and saw what he put into the character of Ellie
>        Arroway, I have to say he captured key things about my
>        life -- it struck at my emotions. It was a visceral
>        experi ence.''
> 
>        In the movie ``Contact,'' Arroway starts looking for
>        answers to the big cosmic puzzle as a young girl whose
>        most prized possession is a shortwave radio. Her father
>        encourages the girl's explorations. But then he dies.
> 
>        ``I knew I wanted to be an engineer when I was 8,'' said
>        Tarter, whose father, professional football player Dick
>        Cornell, had a keen interest in astronomy but died when
>        she was a girl. ``I was absolutely certain that would be
>        my path, and I became one.''
> 
>        But Tarter, an honors graduate of Cornell, shifted her
>        interest to astronomy when she moved to Berkeley to
>        pursue a doctorate at the University of California. She
>        set the slide rule aside to work in a program called
>        SERENDIP, a small research project that analyzed radio
>        signals in a search for extraterrestrial civilizations.
>        She later became project scientist for NASA's Ames
>        Research Center High Resolution Microwave Survey, which
>        turned into privately funded SETI when Congress
>        terminated public funding in 1993.
> 
>        A recent CNN poll found that 80 percent of Americans
>        believe life exists beyond Earth. In 12 years of trying,
>        SETI has not had a ``contact.''
> 
>        Ever since, Tarter has been team leader, dreamer,
>        exacting scientific explorer, role model as an
>        underrepresented female presence in science and
>        outspoken intellectual who mixes thoughtful mentoring
>        with the occasional gruffness of a sea captain. Oh, and
>        she's also married and a mother of three.
> 
>        Researchers working on the Warner Bros. film began to
>        contact SETI people about 18 months ago. They wanted to
>        look at the office, talk to astronomers, see what
>        T-shirts they wore, how they comported themselves, what
>        their computers looked like, even what kinds of coffee
>        mugs they used.
> 
>        One astronomer, Kent Cullers, manager of a SETI signal
>        detection team, was even screen-tested for a part.
>        Cullers is blind, and one of Arroway's closest
>        associates in the film is, too.
> 
>        ``I decided I could just barely play myself on a good
>        day,'' Cullers said.
> 
>        Among the film researchers was Jodie Foster, who caught
>        up with globe-traveling astronomer Tarter at the huge
>        Arecibo radar telescope in Puerto Rico, which was used
>        as a centerpiece in important sequences in ``Contact.''
> 
>        ``I was blown away by how sharp and articulate she is,''
>        said Tarter of her two-day meeting with Foster. They
>        talked about the human condition, moviemaking, myths,
>        aliens and the protocols of modern science.
> 
>        ``I had no idea what to expect because I had never met
>        anyone from Hollywood, from the movie business, before.
>        As a scientist, you tend to have this view of the world
>        that anybody who isn't a scientist is somehow
>        inarticulate,'' said Tarter.
> 
>        ``But she had read up, and she was one bright lady. She
>        didn't bring any of that Hollywood mind-set about
>        science fiction and Martians.''
> 
>        Foster appears in almost every frame of ``Contact.'' If
>        ever there were a choice role to encourage the idea that
>        a woman can be a pioneer in science, this is it.
> 
>        In the film Ellie Arroway has a fling with a guy named
>        Palmer Joss, a New Age religious sage played by Matthew
>        McConaughey. They spar with each other about scientific
>        evidence versus faith.
> 
>        There wasn't a Palmer Joss in Tarter's life.
> 
>        ``I tended to date architects,'' she said. ``Carl used
>        that character in his book as a device to mix a love
>        interest into a heated argument about science and
>        religion. I think it worked well.''
> 
>        Tarter didn't stray from the faith in her choice of a
>        mate -- she's married to William J. ``Jack'' Welch,
>        recently retired director of the Radio Astronomy
>        Laboratory at UC Berkeley.
> 
>        Hollywood money -- none went to SETI -- is a bit of an
>        issue around SETI work stations. In a time when sci-fi
>        aliens are a rising stock in Hollywood films, real
>        astronomers looking for extraterrestrials are constantly
>        scrambling for funding. Foster was paid a reported $9
>        million to play the ``Contact'' role, while the
>        40-employee SETI has an annual budget of $4 million. To
>        some, that's out of this world.
>        --------------------------------------------------------
>        CONTACT
> 
>        The sci-fi film, based on Carl Sagan's novel and
>        starring Jodie Foster, opens Friday at Bay Area
>        theaters.
> 
>                   © The Chronicle Publishing Company