Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Oct 27, 2020 12:19:31 GMT 2
(.#564).- No signs of ET civilization around these 1,300 stars.
No signs of ET civilization around these 1,300 stars.
By: Brice Louvet, science editor
June 22, 2019.
SETI recently released data from its latest extraterrestrial research program. More than 1,300 stars were surveyed. And for the moment, we are still alone. Details of the study are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
The SETI program is a project aimed at finding traces of extraterrestrial civilizations. Using radio telescopes, researchers are trying to pick up radio waves from all over space. The goal is then to determine if these waves have an artificial origin or, on the contrary, if they are emitted by a completely natural source. This research has been going on for several decades already. More recently, as part of the Breakthrough Listen initiative, SETI astronomers have used two main instruments: the Green Bank Observatory (United States) and the Parkes Observatory (Australia). Objective: to probe the techno-signatures around 1,327 stars located less than 160 light years away. Result: no extraterrestrial signs.
"We haven't recognized any glaring evidence," said Danny Price, an astrophysicist at the University of California at Berkeley. There are no incredibly advanced civilizations trying to contact us with incredibly powerful transmitters. " Researchers say they have analyzed 1 petabyte (or 1 million gigabytes) of radio and optical wavelength data for this campaign. Certain signals aroused their curiosity, but after careful examination, all came from ordinary sources. Like satellites orbiting the Earth, for example.
The Parkes observatory in New South Wales, operational since 1961.
credits: Wikipedia
The reasons for the “silence”
So far, all of the research has been unsuccessful. It is recalled that about two years ago, a study revealed that the mysterious signal "Wow!", Detected in 1977, had not finally been sent by an extraterrestrial civilization. The signal received was in fact due to the passage of two comets, unknown at the time. They are today listed and named under the names of 266P / Christensen and 335P / Gibbs.
The reasons for this “silence” can be many. First, the portions of the sky "excavated" by SETI represent only a simple drop of water in a sidereal ocean. If we have no trace of civilizations to date, it is also perhaps that these civilizations have voluntarily put themselves into “prolonged self-imposed standby”. At least this is the opinion of three researchers, noting that in our "hot" Universe, an advanced digital form of life should wait for the Universe to cool down.
Other reasons are also possible. For example, microbial life may be common - it may even be a cosmic imperative - but intelligent life may be more rare. There may also be a voluntary refusal to communicate. That interstellar travel is ultimately too complicated, too. Or, why not, that another form of extraterrestrial life simply does not yet exist in the Universe.
But the researchers are not giving up hope. The latter are now aiming to rely on the MeerKAT, a radio telescope made up of 64 antennas located in the north of Cape Town, in South Africa. Objective: to screen the signals emitted by a million stars in our cosmic neighborhood.
F I N .
No signs of ET civilization around these 1,300 stars.
By: Brice Louvet, science editor
June 22, 2019.
SETI recently released data from its latest extraterrestrial research program. More than 1,300 stars were surveyed. And for the moment, we are still alone. Details of the study are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
The SETI program is a project aimed at finding traces of extraterrestrial civilizations. Using radio telescopes, researchers are trying to pick up radio waves from all over space. The goal is then to determine if these waves have an artificial origin or, on the contrary, if they are emitted by a completely natural source. This research has been going on for several decades already. More recently, as part of the Breakthrough Listen initiative, SETI astronomers have used two main instruments: the Green Bank Observatory (United States) and the Parkes Observatory (Australia). Objective: to probe the techno-signatures around 1,327 stars located less than 160 light years away. Result: no extraterrestrial signs.
"We haven't recognized any glaring evidence," said Danny Price, an astrophysicist at the University of California at Berkeley. There are no incredibly advanced civilizations trying to contact us with incredibly powerful transmitters. " Researchers say they have analyzed 1 petabyte (or 1 million gigabytes) of radio and optical wavelength data for this campaign. Certain signals aroused their curiosity, but after careful examination, all came from ordinary sources. Like satellites orbiting the Earth, for example.
The Parkes observatory in New South Wales, operational since 1961.
credits: Wikipedia
The reasons for the “silence”
So far, all of the research has been unsuccessful. It is recalled that about two years ago, a study revealed that the mysterious signal "Wow!", Detected in 1977, had not finally been sent by an extraterrestrial civilization. The signal received was in fact due to the passage of two comets, unknown at the time. They are today listed and named under the names of 266P / Christensen and 335P / Gibbs.
The reasons for this “silence” can be many. First, the portions of the sky "excavated" by SETI represent only a simple drop of water in a sidereal ocean. If we have no trace of civilizations to date, it is also perhaps that these civilizations have voluntarily put themselves into “prolonged self-imposed standby”. At least this is the opinion of three researchers, noting that in our "hot" Universe, an advanced digital form of life should wait for the Universe to cool down.
Other reasons are also possible. For example, microbial life may be common - it may even be a cosmic imperative - but intelligent life may be more rare. There may also be a voluntary refusal to communicate. That interstellar travel is ultimately too complicated, too. Or, why not, that another form of extraterrestrial life simply does not yet exist in the Universe.
But the researchers are not giving up hope. The latter are now aiming to rely on the MeerKAT, a radio telescope made up of 64 antennas located in the north of Cape Town, in South Africa. Objective: to screen the signals emitted by a million stars in our cosmic neighborhood.
F I N .
