For half a century, astronomers have been searching for alien life. A network of radio telescopes deployed around the world picks up the slightest signals from all over the Galaxy. Scientists and ordinary enthusiasts, using distributed computing methods, study the obtained data in order to find meaningful fragments and decipher them. Recently increased interest in such searches again raised such projects to the peak of popularity.
The SETI (Search for Extra - Terrestrial Intelligence) project was born in 1960, when astronomy professor Frank Drake turned a 26-meter telescope towards Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani to study the radio signals coming from there. And although the result turned out to be zero, from that moment began the history of scientifically based searches for alien life.
For a long time, the project was based solely on voluntary donations and the participation of volunteers, but recently SETI came under the patronage of NASA and began to play a much more important role in modern astronomy. Thus, funding for searches has increased many times over, but, of course, scientists are required to provide more positive results.
One of the leaders of SETI - Seth Shostak promised at the recently concluded thematic conference that within the next twenty years he and his colleagues will find signs of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Perhaps it will turn out to be an intelligent civilization. “There are more than 500 billion planets in our Galaxy, and the total number of galaxies exceeds 100 billion. You have to be very limited to assume that something interesting is happening only on Earth,”Shostak said from the rostrum.
Starting next year, the Kepler space telescope will join the SETI project, which for four years will scan 100,000 star systems in search of Earth-like planets. This will allow you to prioritize targets for subsequent radio searches. Before that, SETI's work was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but Kepler will simplify the task by eliminating many false options and freeing up thousands of hours of radio telescopes.
“All of this gives us optimism,” says founding father Frank Drake of the project. “We are confident that in the next twenty years we will learn a lot about the existence of life outside the Earth. At the same time, the chance to find advanced alien civilizations will increase."
However, some astronomers doubt that the SETI project is the primary tool in establishing contact with intelligent life. They assume that the researchers will pass unnoticed forms of life, other than the earth, living on planets that are not similar to Earth. Who knows what habitat conditions will be most suitable for non-carbon life forms?
The role that carbon atoms played on Earth, which formed the basis of organic compounds and life itself, in other regions of the Galaxy may be played by other elements. Arsenite may be among those. For an example, you do not need to fly to the stars, it is enough to plunge into the sea, where some microscopic algae are able to produce arsenite-based compounds - arsenosaccharum and arsenobetaine. Other microorganisms also use arsenite to generate energy and stimulate growth.
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Chlorine, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur are also among the contenders for the fundamental element. Some terrestrial bacteria have adapted to use sulfur instead of oxygen, converting it into hydrogen sulfide. There are other examples that support that carbon and oxygen are not essential to life. The same is with water, without which many living organisms can safely manage.
It is possible that there is life in the Universe, but it does not fit into the framework established by scientists. Likewise, any alien intelligence may turn out to be different from the concept that we mean by this word. Aliens may not be endowed with speech, hearing and sight, like humanoids.
That is why supporters of alternative research insist that searches should take place in several directions at once, and biologists and astronomers are simply obliged to calculate all possible options for alien life for which they only have enough imagination. And only after that, scientists will be able to predict in advance what corner of the Galaxy to look into in order to meet "brothers in mind."
Pavel Urushev
