Extraterrestrial

Results of ET technosignatures survey revealed

By T.K. Randall
September 8, 2020

Image: OVRO 40 Meter Radio Telescope
Credit: Salvor Hardin / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) With the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Australia turned towards the Vela region in the southern sky, astronomers Chenoa Tremblay and Steven Tingay from the Curtin University node of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) scoured the heavens for signs of life.

Their goal was to find evidence of alien technosignatures - the telltale signs of technological activity (such as radio signals) indicative of an advanced extraterrestrial intelligence.

Sadly however, despite surveying over 10 million stars, they found no sign of ET whatsoever.

"As Douglas Adams noted in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 'space is big, really big'," said Tingay. "And even though this was a really big study, the amount of space we looked at was the equivalent of trying to find something in Earth's oceans, but only searching a volume of water equivalent to a large backyard swimming pool."

"Since we can't really assume how possible alien civilizations might utilize technology, we need to search in many different ways."

"Using radio telescopes, we can explore an eight-dimensional search space. Although there is a long way to go in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, telescopes such as the MWA will continue to push the limits - we have to keep looking."

Source: Science Alert

Tags: SETI, Alien