In their latest search for aliens or extraterrestrial life, scientists are attentively listening to radio signals emanating from the center of our galaxy.
Radio signals are being used to track down aliens
The theory that intelligent aliens could be lurking at the center of our galaxy – the Milky Way – has taken the exploration of extraterrestrial life in a new direction. Pulsar stars release narrow-frequency signals naturally, but humans also exploit them on purpose in technologies such as radar. Because these signals may stand out against the background radio noise in space, they are expected to be an effective technique to communicate over such large distances. As a result, scientists regard them as a suitable option to listen to while hunting for alien civilizations.
Strategy for locating aliens
The scientists described the novel alien-hunting approach in a new report published in The Astronomical Journal. The software was designed by the researchers, led by Cornell University graduate student Akshay Suresh, to recognize repeating frequency patterns that were tested on known pulsars that are known for picking up narrow frequencies flawlessly. These frequency ranges have been quite narrow, with a width of about a tenth of the frequencies used by an FM radio station. The researchers next used the approach to search for data from the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.
“Until now, radio SETI has primarily dedicated its efforts to the search for continuous signals,” said SETI Institute study co-author Vishal Gajjar in a statement.
“Our study sheds light on the remarkable energy efficiency of a train of pulses as a means of interstellar communication across vast distances. Notably, this study marks the first-ever comprehensive endeavor to conduct in-depth searches for these signals,” he added.
Why are scientists listening in the Milky Way’s center?
The researchers have focused on the signals emanating from the center of the Milky Way because they are crowded with stars and potentially habitable exoplanets. Furthermore, if sentient aliens exist at the heart of the Milky Way and seek to communicate with other galaxies, they may broadcast signals across a large range of planets due to their location at the center of the galaxy.
“Breakthrough Listen captures huge volumes of data, and Akshay’s technique provides a new method to help us search that haystack for needles that could provide tantalizing evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life forms,” study co-author and project scientist with the Breakthrough Listen program Steve Croft said.