In search of alien civilizations, scientists have tried to find their various signs, ranging from radio transmissions to laser flares, but all without success. However, new research suggests that the strange phenomenon of fast, discrete radio pulses may be evidence of advanced alien technology.
Such pulses could be evidence of planet-sized transmitters that transmit energy to interstellar ships in distant galaxies.
As the name suggests, fast discrete radio pulses are millisecond bursts of radio frequency. They were first discovered in 2007, and since then, scientists have detected no more than two dozen such impulses. They all come from distant galaxies that are billions of light-years from Earth.
Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Manasvi Lingam of Harvard University considered whether it was possible for a radio transmitter to be powerful enough to detect its action at such a great distance. They found that if the transmitter is powered by the radiance of a star, its light must fall on a planet twice the size of Earth in order to generate the necessary energy for pulses of this power. Such a huge structure is far beyond technology, even potentially capable of being at the disposal of mankind, but quite possible from the point of view of the laws of physics.
Lingam and Loeb also calculated whether such a transmitter could exist from an engineering point of view, or whether such an amount of energy would simply melt any structure. Once again, they figured out that a water-cooled device twice the size of Earth can handle this heat.
Then the scientists wondered why such a massive installation was needed at all, and made the assumption that it could well give acceleration to interstellar light sails. The energy received is enough to move millions of tons of cargo. "This is enough to transport living passengers across interstellar or even intergalactic distances," says Lingam.
In order to transmit energy to the lightsail, the transmitter must be constantly focused on it. Observers on Earth see only a brief burst of signal, because the ship, the installation, the star and the galaxy itself are constantly moving relative to each other, as a result of which the radio beam points in our direction for only a short moment. Repeated observations of the beam were recorded, but no astrophysical reasons were found for them.
Loeb admits that his work is purely speculative. When asked if he really believes in the intelligent origin of discrete radio pulses, he replied: “Science is not a matter of faith, but of evidence. If we decide that we cannot consider something that is beyond our capabilities, then this greatly reduces the range of potential research. So it is better to express different ideas, and let the findings decide whether our assumptions are true or not."
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