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American astronomers from the Breakthrough Listen project at the University of California, Berkeley, have conducted the largest-ever study of cosmic radio signals, searching for possible signs of the existence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. About this write SciTechDaily.
Using the powerful Green Bank radio telescope, scientists studied the 4-8 GHz frequency range, which has previously been largely unexplored by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program. The research team, led by Sophia Sheikh, used the transit photometry method, which is used to search for exoplanets.
Green Bank Telescope
The logic of the study was simple: if there are civilizations with telescopes similar to Earth's, they could spot our planet as it passes in front of the Sun and try to send us a signal. The scientists focused on 20 star systems where planets with intelligent life could potentially exist.
The study analyzed over a million radio bursts, from which several hundred of the most interesting signals were selected for detailed study. However, after careful inspection, it turned out that they all have a terrestrial origin - either from various interferences or from satellites.
Project leader Andrew Simion notes that while no signs of extraterrestrial life have been found, this study sets new benchmarks for the possibility of artificial signals in our galaxy. To put that into perspective, if you imagine the entire cosmic radiosphere as an ocean, humanity has so far explored an area the size of a hot tub.
The Breakthrough Listen project has taken a major step forward in research by making 2 petabytes of data collected by the Parkes and Green Bank telescopes publicly available, with the hope that this data will help both in the search for extraterrestrial life and in the discovery of new cosmic phenomena.
