A group of researchers at the University of California shared the possibility of extraterrestrial life forms contacting Earth in the year 2029. As a routine procedure to maintain communication and send data, NASA sent radio waves to the Pioneer 12 probe in 2002, which also managed to reach a star nearly 27 light-years away due to the expansive nature of transmission.
The scientists from UC are optimistic that these waves may have been intercepted by aliens who could potentially make contact with Earth in response.
Expected Radio Wave Transmissions To Reach Earth
Howard Isaacson, a co-author and astronomer from the University of California, Berkeley, acknowledged in an interview with Popular Science that the concept used in the study was famously featured in Carl Sagan's 1997 movie Contact, wherein a SETI scientist who discovers proof of extraterrestrial life on a faraway planet and decides to make contact by transmitting radio waves.
To determine the course of the transmissions into the cosmos, the researchers analyzed signals delivered from Earth to Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and New Horizons.
The study, titled "The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Nearby Stars' Close Encounters with the Brightest Earth Transmissions" published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society journal, explains that these spacecraft have communicated with NASA's Deep Station Network (DSN) radio antennas to obtain scientific data and telemetry data.
According to MailOnline, signals transmitted to Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, and Pioneer 11 have already come into contact with at least one star. Pioneer 10's broadcasts collided with a white dwarf star in 2002, and the crew anticipates that it will collide with 222 stars by 2313.
Meanwhile, signals sent to Voyager 1 and New Horizons will soon reach their first stars, with predictions indicating that Voyager 1 will reach one in 2044, and all its transmissions will reach 277 stars by 2341.
The transmissions of Voyager 2 have already contacted two objects, which were discovered in 2007; and by 2336, all 272 neighboring stars would have been discovered. According to the team, aliens will answer to the messages by 2033.
New Horizons has not yet made contact with a star, but it will do so in 2119 and will have visited 139 stars by 2338. The team expects to receive a response in 2232. However, transmissions to New Horizons will not contact a star until 75 years after any other spacecraft because it was launched later and spent less time in the heliosphere.
Movie Plot-Themed Idea Unlikely To Yield Results
Although the movie plot-themed idea narrows the stars scientists need to focus on to look for extraterrestrial life, MailOnline reported that some astronomers do not agree with this notion.
For instance, astrobiologist Kaitlin Rasmussen from the University of Washington thinks that the study is unlikely to yield results, stating that it is "an interesting exercise." The study comes as there have been additional reports of Roswell-style UFO sightings, and six whistleblowers who claim to have worked on Roswell-style UFO crash retrieval and reverse engineering projects have spoken to senior members of Congress.
The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act requires the Pentagon to give high-ranking senators classified reports on previously undisclosed programs related to unidentified anomalous phenomena, including material retrieval and reverse engineering.
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