SETI boldly looks beyond the Milky Way in latest alien hunt
(2024/08/30)
- Reference: 1724975946
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/08/29/seti_intergalactic_search_alien/
- Source link:
Looking for life in the Milky Way is so 20th century – today's alien-hunters are going intergalactic to look for signs of alien intelligence.
Radio astronomer Chenoa Tremblay of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and astrophysicist Steven Tingay of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research did just that, and published their [1]findings this week. Their work, the pair wrote, is the "first low-frequency [between 98 and 128 MHz, in this case] extragalactic technosignature search."
Spoiler alert: they didn't spot signs of a hyper-advanced alien civilization lurking in any of the 1,317 far, far, away galaxies they surveyed.
[2]
The pair didn't search for ET with radio waves – at intergalactic distances radio signals would be so faint as to be indistinguishable from background noise.
[3]
[4]
"We are not so much looking for communication in this case, like we are for things within our galaxy, but for signs that advanced civilizations are manipulating their environments on a very large scale," Tremblay told The Register in an emailed statement. "This is more focused on mega structures or large energy use devices which would require a connection of multiple stars or harnessing the energy of a single star."
Civilizations capable of such feats are ranked on [5]The Kardashev Scale , which measures energy capture capabilities. Type 1 civilizations can access all the energy of their planet, while Type 2 civilizations can harness the energy of their star. Type 3 civilizations would be able to harness the energy of an entire galaxy.
[6]
Earth is not even a Type 1. Sad.
The pair theorize that interplanetary or galaxy-spanning civilizations in Kardashev categories 2 or 3 would emit emitting intense electromagnetic radiation detectable as radio waves – even at galactic distances.
The vast distance between Earth and other galaxies means any signs of alien life would be ancient. Tremblay explained that could mean aliens we learn of today may no longer exist in any recognizable form.
[7]
"Whether the radio emission was created in the past or present doesn't matter – we are looking for the possibility of their existence," Tremblay urged. "There are so many unknowns when it comes to searching for technosignatures. So, we look anywhere, anytime, and as much as possible."
[8]Late Qualcomm cofounder teleports $200M into SETI to bankroll hunt for alien life
[9]Encoded 'alien message' will reach Earth today, but relax: It's just a drill
[10]Researchers train an AI system to find extraterrestrial life
[11]Space dust that regularly hits Earth could contain proof of alien life
In this case, the search was a largely opportunistic, Tremblay told us, because the MWA had a set of data from a previous galactic survey available for these purposes – and conveniently none in a set of radio frequencies typically monitored by the SETI community.
"We … have not put a lot of effort [into] searching the low radio frequencies for signs of life," Tremblay explained. "However, as we have not yet detected signs of technosignatures, prematurely narrowing down where we search in wavelength space can be a detriment."
Adding to the novelty of this search, the MWA data comes from a region of the sky not typically targeted by SETI.
"Exploring a new set of data for a new frequency range for a new group of sources … is what makes this work unique," Tremblay told us.
Despite no success yet in finding advanced life viewable from an intergalactic scale, Tremblay and Tingay aren't giving up. Experiments at Europe's Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) are scheduled to start up soon and will be specifically designed to look for signs of advanced alien life, instead of just trying to tease out the details from a galactic survey.
Whether we'll get any evidence for distant and super-advanced alien life with this next round of research remains to be seen. Earth appears to remain isolated - for now.
"If we don't search, we definitely won't find anything," Tremblay observed. And we're always finding new ways to search. ®
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[1] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad6b11
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[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
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[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/09/qualcomm_cofounder_seti/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/24/encoded_alien_message_will_reach/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/27/mars_ai_life/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/22/space_dust_alien_life_research/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Radio astronomer Chenoa Tremblay of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and astrophysicist Steven Tingay of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research did just that, and published their [1]findings this week. Their work, the pair wrote, is the "first low-frequency [between 98 and 128 MHz, in this case] extragalactic technosignature search."
Spoiler alert: they didn't spot signs of a hyper-advanced alien civilization lurking in any of the 1,317 far, far, away galaxies they surveyed.
[2]
The pair didn't search for ET with radio waves – at intergalactic distances radio signals would be so faint as to be indistinguishable from background noise.
[3]
[4]
"We are not so much looking for communication in this case, like we are for things within our galaxy, but for signs that advanced civilizations are manipulating their environments on a very large scale," Tremblay told The Register in an emailed statement. "This is more focused on mega structures or large energy use devices which would require a connection of multiple stars or harnessing the energy of a single star."
Civilizations capable of such feats are ranked on [5]The Kardashev Scale , which measures energy capture capabilities. Type 1 civilizations can access all the energy of their planet, while Type 2 civilizations can harness the energy of their star. Type 3 civilizations would be able to harness the energy of an entire galaxy.
[6]
Earth is not even a Type 1. Sad.
The pair theorize that interplanetary or galaxy-spanning civilizations in Kardashev categories 2 or 3 would emit emitting intense electromagnetic radiation detectable as radio waves – even at galactic distances.
The vast distance between Earth and other galaxies means any signs of alien life would be ancient. Tremblay explained that could mean aliens we learn of today may no longer exist in any recognizable form.
[7]
"Whether the radio emission was created in the past or present doesn't matter – we are looking for the possibility of their existence," Tremblay urged. "There are so many unknowns when it comes to searching for technosignatures. So, we look anywhere, anytime, and as much as possible."
[8]Late Qualcomm cofounder teleports $200M into SETI to bankroll hunt for alien life
[9]Encoded 'alien message' will reach Earth today, but relax: It's just a drill
[10]Researchers train an AI system to find extraterrestrial life
[11]Space dust that regularly hits Earth could contain proof of alien life
In this case, the search was a largely opportunistic, Tremblay told us, because the MWA had a set of data from a previous galactic survey available for these purposes – and conveniently none in a set of radio frequencies typically monitored by the SETI community.
"We … have not put a lot of effort [into] searching the low radio frequencies for signs of life," Tremblay explained. "However, as we have not yet detected signs of technosignatures, prematurely narrowing down where we search in wavelength space can be a detriment."
Adding to the novelty of this search, the MWA data comes from a region of the sky not typically targeted by SETI.
"Exploring a new set of data for a new frequency range for a new group of sources … is what makes this work unique," Tremblay told us.
Despite no success yet in finding advanced life viewable from an intergalactic scale, Tremblay and Tingay aren't giving up. Experiments at Europe's Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) are scheduled to start up soon and will be specifically designed to look for signs of advanced alien life, instead of just trying to tease out the details from a galactic survey.
Whether we'll get any evidence for distant and super-advanced alien life with this next round of research remains to be seen. Earth appears to remain isolated - for now.
"If we don't search, we definitely won't find anything," Tremblay observed. And we're always finding new ways to search. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad6b11
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZtFD5QIRYVr27EioxI48iAAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZtFD5QIRYVr27EioxI48iAAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZtFD5QIRYVr27EioxI48iAAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZtFD5QIRYVr27EioxI48iAAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/09/qualcomm_cofounder_seti/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/24/encoded_alien_message_will_reach/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/27/mars_ai_life/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/22/space_dust_alien_life_research/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: I mentioned something like this...
DS999
Unless you go for the Schlock Mercenary, approach, and assume that they are all a bunch of scaredy-cats & run out of the galaxy as fast as they can
Run out of the galaxy? To where? Intergalactic space, or especially a great void between superclusters might be a good place to hide, but there's not a lot of energy to be found unless you've figured out how to exploit zero point energy or drag a good sized black hole with you to extract energy from its frame dragging.
If you can exploit the energy of a good chunk of stars in an entire galaxy, you don't have to scared of anyone. In that case its more likely YOU'RE the one anyone else in that galaxy is scared of, and perhaps with historical good reason - i.e. if intelligent starfaring life is common enough for at least a dozen to spring up in the same galaxy at the same time, they are inevitably going to encounter each other at some point.
If two such civilizations are in the process of building a network of Dyson swarms around stars and expanding their civilization's reach, they either have to come to an agreement or one may choose to eliminate the other. Perhaps they may consider one who has spread to only a handful of star systems as not worth the bother so long as they don't try to expand beyond the "reservation" set aside for them.
I mentioned something like this...
a while back, but from the very general nature of the comments, I don't think that they are looking for what I would look for... waste heat.
In particular, a galaxy with a civilization in the 2.3-2.5 range would, by definition, have a tremendous portion of its energy being captured in one section, but not in another. A large portion of the captured energy would be re-released as waste heat.
So, if you have, in one part of a galaxy, a substantial and varying red shift compared to others, especially if the lines were light on the absorption lines associated with stars, that would be worth looking at closely.
Unless you go for the Schlock Mercenary, approach, and assume that they are all a bunch of scaredy-cats & run out of the galaxy as fast as they can to avoid detection...