After 20 years, SETI@home, a distributed computing network, has completed its investigation of radio telescope data looking for traces of extraterrestrial life. Like Folding@home, currently the world's most powerful supercomputer in the fight against the new coronavirus, SETI@home was using a vast network of user-donated computers to analyze the data, but this month it is going into hibernation.

SETI@home has been in operation since 1999. During that time, it has processed large amounts of radio telescope data collected from the deepest reaches of the universe, listening for narrowband radio signals and tracking anything out of the ordinary. To do this, computers around the world equipped with graphics cards and powerful CPUs are working together to learn about life outside of Earth.

Don't worry, it is not being shut down for lack of interest (or indeed for lack of aliens). In fact, researchers based at the University of California, Berkeley, are awash in data (not aliens). But since no more data is needed, the team of astronomers will concentrate on back-end analysis for publication in a scientific journal (via Bleeping Computer).

"We are extremely grateful to all of our volunteers who have supported us in so many ways over the past 20 years," the blog post describing the project's hibernation reads.

"Without you, there would be no SETI@home. We are excited to finish our original science project and look forward to what comes next."

The project's bulletin board will continue to operate, but no longer will the search for extraterrestrial life have to be imposed on game consoles. Instead, the SETI@home team is recommending Folding@home and its help with the important task of simulating the COVID-19 virus. The project is currently running on 1.5 exaflops of computing power donated from around the world. This is the equivalent of one Frontier supercomputer.

If you would like to lend a hand with this project, you can join our amazing team by signing up on the PC Gamer Community forum. We have a step-by-step guide to get you started so you can get up and running quickly.

SETI@home may one day be revived. Researchers are considering the possibility of using SETI@home and distributing tasks in future cosmology and pulsar studies. However, since nothing is set in stone, it would be better to make good use of the gaming PC for research elsewhere than to leave it idling. For now, the aliens aren't going anywhere.