Scientists Foresee a Major Breakthrough in Their Search For Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life

While some organizations, programs, and individuals are passionate about SETI or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Breakthrough Listen is one that remarkably stands out. In fact, this privately funded project is the biggest scientific research endeavor that is working toward these aims.

Now, according to Science Alert, the project has commenced its operations with the MeerKAT array of a radio telescope within South Africa.

MeerKAT Radio Telescope To Help Scientists Find Evidence of Extraterrestrial Intelligence

According to the SARAO or South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, this MeerKAT radio telescope that was launched last 2018 is a predecessor of the SKA or Square Kilometer Array telescope. The MeerKAT Radio Telescope is set to be integrated as part of the SKA Phase 1's component with mid-level frequency.

Now, in the succeeding two years, the research team will explore more than a million proximate stars. This significantly increases their observed target count by a factor worth one thousand.

Dr. Cherry Ng, the project scientist behind the MeerKAT project under Breakthrough Listen, notes his excitement to look for more signs with the help of one of the world's most sensitive nad delicate telescopes.

Science Alert notes that the radio telescope will grant the team the capacity to trace a particular transmitter that is largely similar to the brightest radio beacons of earth to around 250 light years worth of distance.

Within this particular range, around 260,000 stars can be sighted. Those stars that are more distant may be harder to search for. Nevertheless, there is still a possibility of tracing signals from sources that are far.

Breakthrough Listen moves through with telescopes such as USA's Green Bank Telescope and Australia's Parkes Telescope. Now, the MeerKAT array is the newest member of its lineup.

The telescope's 64 dishes within its array is able to see the view of the sky by fifty times compared to the Green Bank telescope. This makes the telescope exceptional when it comes to checking for vague swaths within the proximate neighbors of earth.

The software of Breakthrough Listen on the MeerKAT telescope also allows them to move forward in a commensal mode. This means that they can carry on with their hunt without having to interfere with the work of other scientists.

Among its lineup of targets, the close Proxima Centauri is one of the firsts that Breakthrough Listen will look into using the MeerKAT.

Support for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Because of SETI's strong association with certain conspiracy theories, the core premise behind it tends to get overshadowed. Nevertheless, behind SETI endeavors is a huge question faced by humanity: is there life beyond earth?

To date, there are no concrete signs of extraterrestrial life. While there were occasional outliers in history, Science Alert notes that they failed to be duplicated in succeeding research. At best, such outliers give inconclusive signals of an extraterrestrial presence. However, oftentimes, they tend to be signals from earth that end up being misunderstood to have extraterrestrial roots as noted by Science Alert.

With the help of MeerKAT's rich capacities, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is bound to be even more thorough. It is only a matter of time for researchers to note what they find or what they do not find.

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