Scientists speculate that aliens could lie at the heart of the galaxy and that repeated signals from this core could be their greetings.
Extraterrestrial Life in the Milky Way?
As part of long-standing efforts to find extraterrestrial existence, a novel search method aims to examine radio pulses that come from the Milky Way's center, Live Science reports. Such pulses with narrow frequencies are typically emitted by stars known as pulsars. However, humans also deliberately use such frequencies for radars.
These pulses tend to stand out amidst the background noises across space. Because of this, they tend to be effective communication channels over long distances. They also make appealing listening targets when it comes to searching for extraterrestrial populations or civilizations.
Graduate student Akshay Suresh from Cornell University spearheaded the extraordinary efforts to search for alien life through such methods. Suresh and colleagues detailed the method in The Astronomical Journal.
The researchers made a software that could pick up the frequencies. They then tested it on pulsars to ensure that it could detect such narrow frequencies. The method was then tested out on data from West Virginia's Green Bank Telescope.
Dr. Vishal Gajjar, one of the study's co-authors from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and one of the advisors of Suresh, explains that until this point, SETI dedicated most efforts to search for signals that are continuous, Science Daily reports. Now, the study reveals how energy efficiency on certain pulse trains could be a means for interstellar communication over long distances. The study is notably the first comprehensive one to perform in-depth searches for such kinds of signals.
Live Science notes that maximizing repeated patterns and narrow bandwidths is a way for extraterrestrial life to reveal itself, as such a mix is not likely to naturally occur, as co-author and project scientist Steve Croft explains.
The method incorporates an algorithm that can explore 1.5 million data samples from telescopes in just half an hour. While researchers did not pick up any signs in the first run, they think that the algorithm's speed will enhance future searches.
Such efforts come as part of the BLIPSS, or Breakthrough Listen Investigation for Periodic Spectral Signals. The project is a collaboration between Breakthrough Listen, the SETI Institute, and Cornell University.
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Alien Signals
These efforts came shortly after simulated alien signals from Mars were sent and transmitted to the Earth. Such efforts were made under the A Sign in Space project of the SETI Institute, Futurism reports.
The signal was beamed from an orbiter on Mars and was received by three huge Earth-based telescopes after 16 minutes. These were the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station, the Green Bank Observatory, and the Allen Telescope Array.
Such simulated efforts were done in order to rehearse how Earthlings would respond if Earth were to receive actual alien signals.
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