Astrophysicist Antonio Paris of St. Petersburg College in Florida intends to track comet 266P / Christensen on January 25. On this day, she must pass next to the group of stars Chi of the constellation Sagittarius. Why does he need it?
The fact is that 40 years ago, in the same area of the starry sky, the Big Ear radio telescope recorded a powerful signal so different from the usual cosmic noise that the astronomer Jerry Eiman, who caught it, even made a note “Wow!” On the printout. Then the Ohio State University hoped that the "wow signal" would be a message from an alien civilization, but it was never possible to re-register it.
Now researchers have a new hypothesis regarding the origin of the "message": they believe that its source could be comets (discovered only at the beginning of the XXI century), one of which will be "listened to" by Antonio Paris. While the astrophysicist is engaged in research designed to confirm or disprove his theory, we recall whether humanity has received other ambiguous signals from space, whether there are special programs to track them - and whether such activities are yielding any results.
Has this happened before?
Yes. The very idea of communicating with alien civilizations using signals arose simultaneously with radio, and it was from the moment of its invention that people on Earth began to actively "listen" to space.
True, the efforts of researchers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries were mainly directed at our closest neighbors in the solar system: Venus and Mars. Both Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi stated at different times that they managed to catch alien messages. And in August 1924, the United States even declared a National Day of Radio Silence: Mars approached a record close distance to Earth, and the American government was afraid to miss a possible "welcome signal." But, as we know, it never followed.
Now, based on the data of numerous space studies, it is safe to say that we have no one to talk to within the solar system. But outside it - it is possible.
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Is it only radio?
Previously, most of the research on the search for alien signals was carried out in the radio frequency range of 1200-3000 MHz. Scientists assumed that any technologically advanced civilization (at least reaching the level of the earth) will be able to both send and receive such a signal.
Now researchers do not exclude that communication can occur not only in other ranges, but also in other formats (for example, in the form of laser signals). New search methods are also being developed. Several years ago, astronomers from Harvard and Priston universities proposed analyzing the level of illumination on the night side of exoplanets in order to record the possible light of alien cities. But so far this is nothing more than an initiative. Scientists admit that the Earth does not currently have enough sensitive equipment to conduct such research. Hope is pinned on the next-generation American telescope James Webb, which could replace Hubble in 2018.
Who is studying?
In 1959, shortly after the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite and the associated beginning of the space age, such a concept as SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) emerged in the research field - the generalized name for a group of projects to search for extraterrestrial civilizations. Extremely popular at the time of its creation, the direction is now experiencing a crisis associated with the lack of quick results and, as a result, stable funding.
Currently, there are several projects developing thanks to private investment. For example, SETI, a non-profit institute in Mountain View, California, has been working on the Phoenix program for many years. Its goal is to listen to thousands of nearby solar-class stars. The researchers suggest that if the potential of the Allen telescope system is fully used (a joint project of the institute with the laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley), then the first results on the search for alien civilizations can be obtained as early as 2025.
The Breakthrough Listen program, funded by Russian businessman Yuri Milner, also belongs to the category of private projects. Part of the allocated funds is spent on the rental of working hours for the Green Bank telescopes in the United States and the Parks Observatory in Australia. The received data is sent for processing to users participating in the SETI @ home program, launched by the University of California at Berkeley back in 1999. No "scientific intervention" is required from the participants, only the computing power of their computers, which makes it possible to speed up the process of processing space data.
Are there any successes?
So far, none of the studies have yielded positive results, although thousands of stars have been verified over decades of work. True, optimistic representatives of the scientific community remind that the number of stars studied is less than 0.1% of those that are yet to be tested.
Sometimes interesting data can be obtained in the framework of radio astronomy research, not directly related to SETI. For example, one of the last "promising" signals was captured in 2012 with the Kepler telescope, which searches for and studies exoplanets. But it is impossible to say unequivocally that the recorded "message" is of a conscious nature and is not cosmic noise.
Are we sending signals ourselves?
Yes, attempts to send signals into space are collectively called METI (Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The first works in this direction were carried out in the Soviet Union, within the framework of the “Project“Ay!”. In 1962, a radiotelegraph message was transmitted from the Center for Long-Range Space Communication of the USSR in Yevpatoria to space: "Mir", "Lenin", "USSR".
Further, over the course of several years, other radio experiments were carried out, for example, the transmission of information to the nearest stars as part of the international Cosmic Call project, as well as the famous encrypted message sent from the giant radio telescope in Arecibo in Puerto Rico in 1974 (with the active participation of NASA) … However, if we consider that the Earth and the globular star cluster M13 (in the direction of which the message was sent), are separated by 25 100 light years, then there is no need to wait for a quick response. According to the most optimistic forecasts, it can reach us no earlier than in 52,166 years.
Of all the Earth signals sent, the closest arrival date is for the "Message from Earth" transmitted to the planet Gliese 581 in October 2008. According to astronomers' assumptions, it will reach the "addressee" in 2029.
Is it safe?
Opinions differ. One of the SETI theorists, radio astronomer Sebastian Rudolph Karl von Horner (died in 2003 at the age of 83), believed that establishing contact with alien intelligence would be a powerful scientific and civilizational breakthrough, comparable to the invention of speech. He explained the current silence of the Universe by the imperfection of terrestrial technologies and unwillingness to invest enough funds in such research.
Other scientists, like Stephen Hawking, are not so optimistic and believe that such research could provoke an alien invasion. Supporters of METI, in turn, emphasize that since the beginning of the era of radio and television, the Earth has managed to send many "unplanned" signals into space, which have already spread over distances of up to 100 light years, which means that if space ill-wishers wanted to pay attention to us, they would have done it already.
The text used materials from the popular science portal "Cherdak"
