Observations of nearly 700 stars by the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia have turned up no convincing signs of alien civilizations despite Breakthrough's huge budget
Observations of nearly 700 stars by the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia have not revealed any convincing signs of alien civilizations despite the huge budget of the Breakthrough organization leading observations in search of aliens, the group announced Thursday.
Team members detected 11 highly significant events during the observation of the GBT, but the signals are most likely of human origin. "We were able to determine that they were probably caused by radio frequency interference," said Andrew Simeon, director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley.
The new results are just the beginning of the Breakthrough Listening project, which was initiated by billionaire Yuri Milner and a group of scientists, including Stephen Hawking, about two years ago. Over the next decade, the ambitious project seeks to listen to the million stars closest to the Sun, the 100 galaxies closest to our Milky Way galaxy, and the galactic plane – and look for possible signals from intelligent extraterrestrials.
Breakthrough Listen scientists began with an initial list of 1,709 stars, which their team observed with three telescopes: the GBT radio dish with a diameter of 130 meters, the radio telescope with a diameter of 45 meters in Australia and the automatic planet finder - an optical telescope with a diameter of 2.4 meters at the Lick Observatory in California.
"This sample of stars is intended to encompass all types of stars. It represents stars of every spectral type," said Simion. "We want to look at as many different types of stars as possible, leaving ourselves open to any possibility that life might emerge on a planet orbiting one of these stars."
The results, published in the Astrophysical Journal on Thursday, are based on GBT data for 692 of the 1,709 stars. The researchers made about 5,000 individual 5-minute observations with the telescope, accumulating a total of 400 hours of observation, Simion said.
These observations target a frequency range known as the "water window", the quiet part of the radio, which SETI scientists have long estimated could serve as a good window for interstellar communication. The water window is between the emission band of hydroxyl (OH) molecules and hydrogen. A compound of these two substances forms water and hence the name of the window.
"These results represent the most fundamental and comprehensive test of the water window hypothesis ever conducted for nearby stars," Simeon said. "This is a classic idea in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence for more than forty years."
Breakthrough Listen is part of the Breakthrough initiative, which Milner founded in 2015. Another famous program under the same initiative is Breakthrough Starshot, which aims to send tiny spacecraft using light-sensitive sails, so that they reach 20% of the speed of light and can visit the nearby solar system - Proxima Centauri - within a reasonable time.
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A. Ben Nar This is about receiving initiated broadcasts. The water does not transmit. The frequencies they listen to are 1.42GHz (the resonance frequency of the hydrogen molecule) and 1.667GHz (the resonance frequency of the hydroxyl molecule). Also listen to the adjacent frequencies and take the Doppler into account. Again - water does not transmit either on these frequencies or on other frequencies, therefore it does not cause noise either. What we are trying to pick up is artificial transmissions in the aforementioned frequency range called the "water window". The name can really be confusing.
to Arya Seter
According to you, the frequency range known as the "water window" is relatively free of noise.
But from anywhere in space where water is found, whether in outer space or within
In the atmospheres of planets, the frequencies will be emitted and received from the "water window" area
They will indeed create noise and make it difficult to identify "intelligent" transmissions.
This is especially true given the assumption that life is created and exists in a water environment.
in simple words;
If they pick up transmissions or intercept lines from the "window of water", it is likely that they will consider it a discovery
Water and not as an "intelligent" broadcast discovery.
Clarification regarding the water window - the section of the article that begins: "These observations are aimed at a frequency range known as the "water window," and ends: "hence the name of the window." It is not meant to check the existence of water. But the attempts to receive technological extraterrestrial transmissions are made in a certain frequency range that is relatively free of noise and has a high transgression in space, therefore it makes sense (also from the extraterrestrial side) that it be used for communication attempts. (This area is called the water window because it is between hydrogen and hydroxyl, in terms of the frequencies of their emission lines).
Correction to the two lines ending in the previous response:
The claim that the discovery of emission lines in the frequency range of the "water window" indicates the existence of life seems to me to require an explanation.
Does the discovery of (radiation indicating the existence of) water necessarily indicate the existence of life?
I understand that there is some confusion of concepts in the article itself.
On the one hand, they are looking for "smart" extraterrestrials, i.e. intelligent life. It is likely that the distinct fingerprint of intelligent life is coded radiation, similar to television broadcasts, and all AM communication.
Quote: "...the ambitious project seeks to listen to the million stars closest to the Sun, the 100 galaxies closest to our Milky Way galaxy, and the galactic plane - and look for possible signals of intelligent extraterrestrials."
On the other hand, these are observations that try to trace the existence of water molecules in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets
Quote: "...these observations are aimed at a frequency range known as the "water window"...which SETI scientists have long estimated could serve as a good window for interstellar communication. The water window is between the emission band of hydroxyl molecules (OH) and hydrogen..."
The claim as if the discovery of emission lines in the "water window" frequency range seems to me to require an explanation.
Does the discovery of (radiation indicating the existence of) water necessarily indicate the existence of life?
Thanks to these radio telescopes they discovered the pulsars.
With such a radio telescope, they scanned space in search of transmissions from intelligent beings, one scientist... well, something.. named a rhythmic radio transmission from a point in space and they thought at first that it was a transmission from extraterrestrials. That's why the first Pulsar was called LGP, which means Little Green People...
Later it turned out that in the search for extraterrestrial transmissions they discovered one of the most sensational discoveries in the history of astronomy.
It is unfortunate that so much money is wasted.
Even if we assume that there is life outside the earth, it is not understood why it is important to look for it. The consideration is this: if such a life exists, there is a very high chance of two possibilities: it is a very primitive life, or it is a life (culture) at a much higher level than ours. The probability that this is a culture of an advanced degree more or less equal to ours is extremely negligible. Now, if it is a primitive life, then ours has no special interest in it, and it is a pity for the money invested in finding it, assuming that it is accessible at all. And if it is a high culture - it is likely that it will discover us before we discover it, and assuming that we are accessible to it - it is not certain that we should be exposed to it. In any case, the financial investment in searching for it is a complete waste of resources. Another consideration must be added to this - if there had been such a high culture, which we are in principle able to discover its sign today, and it is at a reasonable distance that allows some kind of accessibility within a range of decades of light years, it must be assumed that it would have discovered us already decades ago. There is no hint of such an occurrence.
I say all this, of course subject to the fact that the programming for finding life according to the concepts we know is in itself extremely small, considering that the spontaneous formation of a single living cell requires very unique conditions whose accumulation is extremely unlikely, zero from any practical point of view.
It turns out that all the optimistic speculations about the existence of life in space only support a group of interested parties - certain scientists, journalists and cultural designers who have an interest in cultivating a certain, fantastical or completely materialistic view of the phenomenon of life and reality in general. This has nothing to do with any real interest of humanity, which needs solutions to a multitude of real existential problems and dilemmas, and as I already wrote - a waste of money.
At the time I was running Seti's co-op program on my PC but I read in depth on their website
I understood that they would not be able to receive a transmission that is not aimed directly at the Earth even from a distance of 4.2 light years,
Today, as far as I've read and if I'm not mistaken, there is the ability to also receive an indirect transmission, the so-called electromagnetic aura, up to a certain distance, something around 100 light years, a direct transmission can travel much greater distances, but why would something send a focused transmission, let's say from some 1000 light years towards a sphere Country?
This is a broadcast from 1000 years ago and they will receive the answer in another 1000 years assuming we want to shout that we are here, which is not sure a smart thing to do,