The hunt for alien civilizations

[andmar74]

Exiting news about Tabby's star: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabby%27s_Star

Here's a great (new) video from John Michael Godier:

Quick summary: Some years ago, Tabby's star was found to show peculiar behavior. The light from the star was dipping up to 20 %. That's not normal for that type of star. Maybe there is some kind of structure around it. Then it was found that the stuff blocking the light couldn't be a solid object, but must be fine dust. Now, Tabby's star is starting to dim again, and possibly a periodicity of some 1500 days has been found. That would place the dust in the habitable zone around the star. The dust can't be stable there as it will be blown away by the star. So more dust most be continuously produced.

Maybe the dust is produced by alien asteroid mining or stellar lifting.

There's also the mystery of the long time dimming of Tabby's star.

If advanced civilizations are common in the Galaxy, and their activity is visible to us with a certain technology ,it's logical that as we get closer to that level of technology, we will see hints of the alien technology, but like looking into a fog, it's fuzzy at first. When our technology improves, it will be clear what we are seeing.

[caltrek]

Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox” - What is the “SETI-Paradox” Hypothesis?
by Matt Williams
October 5, 2021

https://www.universetoday.com/149513/be ... ore-149513

Introduction:

(Universe Today) Welcome back to our Fermi Paradox series, where we take a look at possible resolutions to Enrico Fermi’s famous question, “Where Is Everybody?” Today, we examine the possibility that we haven’t heard from any aliens is because no one is transmitting!

In 1950, Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi sat down to lunch with some of his colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he had worked five years prior as part of the Manhattan Project. According to various accounts, the conversation turned to aliens and the recent spate of UFOs. Into this, Fermi issued a statement that would go down in the annals of history: “Where is everybody?”

This became the basis of the Fermi Paradox, which refers to the disparity between high probability estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) and the apparent lack of evidence. Since Fermi’s time, there have been several proposed resolutions to his question, including the possibility that everyone is listening, but no one is broadcasting – otherwise known as the “SETI-Paradox.”

This theory comes down to the noticeable divide between what is referred to as “passive SETI” and “active SETI,” the latter of which is more commonly known today as Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI). These differences in approach have become the focal point of attention in recent years as the two have become more differentiated, and the latter has become more common.

[caltrek]

Peculiar Radio Signal First Thought to Come From Proxima Centauri - What a Year of Detective Work Reveals
by Passant Rabbie
October 26, 2021

https://www.inverse.com/science/did-ast ... a-centauri

Introduction:

(Inverse) ON APRIL 29, 2019, AN AUSTRALIAN TELESCOPE DETECTED A RADIO SIGNAL that appeared to be coming from the closest star to our Solar System, Proxima Centauri.

Sofia Sheikh, an astronomy postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, recalls her excitement when she first saw the signal. “I looked at it and I was like, wow this is exactly what we told our algorithm to return to us,” Sheikh tells Inverse.

The signal’s features looked a lot like a signal coming from deep space, perhaps produced by an alien civilization. Following its discovery, a team at Breakthrough Listen, a private effort that is part of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) research field, went on a yearlong journey to find out where the signal was coming from.

Although the signal turned out to be interference coming from Earth, the detective work involved led to the development of better techniques involved in the search for alien life.

The work is detailed in two studies published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

[caltrek]

Did China Just Detect Signals from an Alien Civilization?
by Leonard David
June 15, 2022

Introduction:

(Space.com) The internet is abuzz with rumors that China may have picked up signals from an alien civilization.

The news centers on observations by China's "Sky Eye" — the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), which is located in southwestern Guizhou province.

One report, by the state-backed Science and Technology Daily, cited Zhang Tonjie, chief scientist of an extraterrestrial civilization search team co-founded by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Berkeley.

Zhang is reported to have said that the team spotted two sets of intriguing signals in 2020 while sifting through FAST data gathered in 2019. Another signal was apparently picked up this year in data gathered on exoplanet targets.

However, Zhang reportedly also underscored the possibility that the signals are products of radio interference. Follow-up FAST observations are reportedly on tap. (The Science and Technology Daily story has since been removed from the outlet's site.)

Read more here: https://www.space.com/possible-seti-si ... telescope

[caltrek]

Speculations Concerning the WOW! Signal
by Matt Williams
June 15, 2022

Introduction:

(Universe Today) In 1977, the Big Ear Radio Telescope at Ohio State University picked up a strong narrowband signal from space. The signal was a continuous radio wave that was very strong in intensity and frequency and had many expected characteristics of an extraterrestrial transmission. This event would come to be known as the Wow! Signal, and it remains the strongest candidate for a message sent by an extraterrestrial civilization. Unfortunately, all attempts to pinpoint the source of the signal (or detect it again) have failed.

This led many astronomers and theorists to speculate as to the origin of the signal and what type of civilization may have sent it. In a recent series of papers, amateur astronomer and science communicator Alberto Caballero offered some fresh insights into the Wow! Signal and extraterrestrial intelligence in our cosmic neighborhood. In the first paper, he surveyed nearby Sun-like stars to identify a possible source for the signal. In the second, he estimates the prevalence of hostile extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy and the likelihood that they’ll invade us.

Almost fifty years after it was detected, the Wow! Signal continues to tantalize and defy explanation. In recent years, attempts have been made to attribute it to comets at the edge of our Solar System, an explanation that the astronomical community has since rejected. In 2020, interest in this candidate ETI signal was revitalized when Cabellaro identified a Sun-like star in the vicinity of the sky where the Wow! Signal was detected. If the analysis is correct, this famous signal may have come from a Sun-like star located 1,800 light-years away.

Read more here: https://www.universetoday.com/156281/t ... e-156281

[caltrek]

If Aliens are Calling, Let It Go to Voicemail
by Bryan Walsh
June 18, 2022

Introduction:

(Vox) Humans have invented a rogue’s gallery of nightmarish fictional aliens over the decades: acid-blooded xenomorphs who want to eat us and lay their eggs in our chest cavities; Twilight Zone Kanamits who want to fatten us up like cows and eat us; those lizard creatures in the 1980s miniseries V who want to harvest us for food. (You may be sensing a theme here.)

But the most frightening vision isn’t an alien being at all — it’s a computer program.

In the 1961 sci-fi drama A for Andromeda, written by the British cosmologist Fred Hoyle, a group of scientists running a radio telescope receive a signal originating from the Andromeda Nebula in outer space. They realize the message contains blueprints for the development of a highly advanced computer that generates a living organism called Andromeda.

Andromeda is quickly co-opted by the military for its technological skills, but the scientists discover that its true purpose — and that of the computer and the original signal from space — is to subjugate humanity and prepare the way for alien colonization.

No one gets eaten in A for Andromeda, but it’s chilling precisely because it outlines a scenario that some scientists believe could represent a real existential threat from outer space, one that takes advantage of the very curiosity that leads us to look to the stars. If highly advanced aliens really wanted to conquer Earth, the most effective way likely wouldn’t be through fleets of warships crossing the stellar vastness. It would be through information that could be sent far faster. Call it “cosmic malware.”

The article further discusses recent reports of Chinese astronomers detecting weird radio signals and other matters relating to the headline topic.

Read more here: https://www.vox.com/2022/6/18/23172689 ... risk-seti

caltrek’s comment: I tend to have a more optimistic view of alien intelligence. For such an intelligence to survive, a basic respect for life is implied. Of course, in some cases AI may have gained ascendancy, with a contempt for life. So other possibilities are plausible.

The article is also rather Earth centric. I don’t think that aliens would be excessively pre-occupied with sending destructive messages to our planet. More likely, it seems to me, we would detect signals that involve communication and other purposes internal to their civilization. Our detection of those signals would then be an unintended byproduct. Not totally unpredicted, but merely discounted as of little consequence, especially given the benefits of such activities.

All this is in the context of space being very big. So analogies to colonialism internal to a relatively confined Earth may not be appropriate.

[caltrek]

AI System Detects Strange Signals of Unknown Origin in Radio Data
by Danny Price
January 31, 2023

Introduction:

(Science Alert) Some 540 million years ago, diverse life forms suddenly began to emerge from the muddy ocean floors of planet Earth. This period is known as the Cambrian Explosion, and these aquatic critters are our ancient ancestors.

All complex life on Earth evolved from these underwater creatures. Scientists believe all it took was an ever-so-slight increase in ocean oxygen levels above a certain threshold.

We may now be in the midst of a Cambrian Explosion for artificial intelligence (AI). In the past few years, a burst of incredibly capable AI programs like Midjourney, DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT have showcased the rapid progress we've made in machine learning.

AI is now used in virtually all areas of science to help researchers with routine classification tasks. It's also helping our team of radio astronomers broaden the search for extraterrestrial life, and results so far have been promising.

Discovering alien signals with AI

As scientists searching for evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth, we have built an AI system that beats classical algorithms in signal detection tasks. Our AI was trained to search through data from radio telescopes for signals that couldn't be generated by natural astrophysical processes.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/ai-system ... adio-data

[firestar464]

https://www.sciencealert.com/space-prob ... -heres-why

Never thought about it this way before.

[caltrek]

As pointed out in the article cited below, “SETI research isn’t just about listening for radio signals from distant civilizations; sometimes it’s also about figuring out how we might – accidentally or on purpose – signal our own presence in the cosmos.”

New Study Claims Aliens Could Pick Up Earth Cell Phone Signal
by Kiona Smith
May 17, 2023

Introduction:

(Inverse) If you’re an alien listening to Earth’s radio signals, you may have noticed some changes.

Most of the radio waves our tech-obsessed planet is beaming into space now come from the mobile towers that connect our cell phones. And according to a recent study, it may not be long before alien astronomers, if they’re out there, can pick up those signals from nearby planets.

A team of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) researchers, led by Ramiro Saide of the University of Mauritius, simulated how much radio energy Earth’s millions of mobile towers are leaking out into space, which they published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Read more of the Inverse article here: https://www.inverse.com/science/could- ... one-calls

For the results of the study as published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society:
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/ ... ogin=false

[caltrek]

First Contact: Global Team Simulates Message from Extraterrestrial Intelligence to Earth
May 22, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) May 22, 2023, Mountain View, CA – What would happen if we received a message from an extraterrestrial civilization? Daniela de Paulis, an established interdisciplinary artist and licensed radio operator who currently serves as Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute and the Green Bank Observatory, has brought together a team of international experts, including SETI researchers, space scientists, and artists, to stage her latest project, A Sign in Space. This revolutionary presentation of global theater aims to explore the process of decoding and interpreting an extraterrestrial message by engaging the worldwide SETI community, professionals from different fields and the broader public. This process requires global cooperation, bridging a conversation around SETI, space research and society across multiple cultures and areas of expertise.

As part of the project, on May 24, 2023, the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) in orbit around Mars will transmit an encoded message to Earth to simulate receiving a signal from an extraterrestrial intelligence.

“Throughout history, humanity has searched for meaning in powerful and transformative phenomena,” said Daniela de Paulis, the visionary artist behind the A Sign in Space project. “Receiving a message from an extraterrestrial civilization would be a profoundly transformational experience for all humankind. A Sign in Space offers the unprecedented opportunity to tangibly rehearse and prepare for this scenario through global collaboration, fostering an open-ended search for meaning across all cultures and disciplines.”

Three world-class radio astronomy observatories located across the globe will detect the encoded message. These include the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA), the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) at the Green Bank Observatory (GBO), and the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station observatory managed by Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). The specific content of the encoded message, developed by de Paulis and her team, is currently undisclosed, allowing the public to contribute to decoding and interpreting the content.

The ESA ExoMars Orbiter will transmit the encoded message on May 24 at 19:00 UTC / 12:00 pm PDT, with receipt on Earth 16 minutes later.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/990050

[caltrek]

Harvard Astrophysics Professor Claims He Found ET Tech Inside a Meteor
by Brandon Gage
July 8, 2023

Introduction:

(Alternet) Harvard University Professor of Astrophysics Avi Loeb claimed to CBS News on Friday that he discovered pieces of extraterrestrial technology inside a meteor that crashed near Papua New Guinea in 2014.

…
Further extract:

CBS reported that United State Space Command confirmed "with almost near certainty, 99.999%, that it came from another solar system." But a rock from deep space was not the only enticing discovery that Loeb believes that he and his team made.

"We found ten spherules. These are almost perfect spheres, or metallic marbles. When you look at them through a microscope, they look very distinct from the background," Loeb explained to CBS. "They have colors of gold, blue, brown and some of them resemble a miniature of the Earth."

The object, Loeb continued, "has material strength that is tougher than all space rock that were seen before, and cataloged by" the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

"We calculated its speed outside the solar system," Loeb added of the fallen cosmic debris. "It was 60 km per second, which is faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the sun. The fact that it was made of materials tougher than even iron meteorites, and moving faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the sun, suggested potentially it could be a spacecraft from another civilization, or some technological gadget."

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/harvard-astro ... t-meteor/

[caltrek]

Are Extraterrestrials Listening In On Our Phone Conversations?
by Kelly Kowalski
September 9, 2023

Introduction:

For the past century, we’ve inadvertently broadcast our presence to an estimated 75 nearby star systems. About a quarter of those stars have confirmed exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zone. A few may be harboring intelligent life capable of receiving our long-ago leaked transmissions. But what kind of emissions are seeping into space now? Could extraterrestrials detect our satellite pings around the globe, and could they be listening in on our cellphone conversations?

To figure out our latest leakage, a radio astronomy team is building a model of Earth’s technosignatures, the technological byproducts we radiate into space. The last time scientists simulated Earth’s emissions, Farrah Fawcett chased TV criminals on Charlie’s Angels, and ABBA debuted on Top of the Pops. Nowadays, billions of mobile devices stream gigabytes of content across continents, beaming an undulating pattern of broadband signatures as our planet cycles through night and day.

Further Extracts:

Incorporating geolocation data from OpenCelliD’s crowd-sourced software, the team mapped out 30 million cellphone towers around the globe. Averaging each cell site’s frequency range and wattage, they collated peak power output from the mobile towers’ antenna beams that stretch sideways toward our horizon. Then, factoring in some theoretical alien observers from three nearby star systems, what emerged is a wavy pattern of radio leakage as the mobile towers rise and set with the Earth’s rotation.
…
The team’s findings revealed that a red dwarf about 8 light-years away, labeled blandly HD95735, receives our most potent emissions, 4 gigawatts gleaming on the horizon from mobile towers in China and the US. Staring at our equator is Barnard’s Star, a red dwarf about 6 light-years away with a confirmed exoplanet, and glaring at our southern hemisphere is Alpha Centauri A, a sun within a three-body star system about 4 light-years away. The team determined these stars might pick up about 3 gigawatts of tower transmissions leaked from parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/are-extrat ... ons-70582

[weatheriscool]

Scientists suggest use of data-driven approach to look for life on other planets
https://phys.org/news/2023-09-scientist ... anets.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A large team of scientists with a wide variety of backgrounds has joined together to suggest that a data-driven approach to search for life elsewhere in the universe should replace methods now in use. In their paper posted on the arXiv preprint server, the group explains how a data-driven approach could help prevent human-centered biases from overlooking potential signs of life.

Over the past few decades, scientists have become much more open to the possibility of discovering life in places other than on Earth. And because of that, more work has been done to find life—or at least signs of it. But, as the group on this new effort points out, most such approaches tend to expect that other forms of life will resemble those found on Earth. And that could be blinding scientists to signs of life that might be there but are being missed.

[caltrek]

Scientists Develop Method of Identifying Life on Other Worlds
September 25, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) Humankind is looking for life on other planets, but how will we recognise it when we see it? Now a group of US scientists have developed an artificial-intelligence-based system which gives 90% accuracy in discovering signs of life.

The work was presented to scientists for the first time at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in Lyon on Friday 14th July, where it received a positive reception from others working in the field. The details have now been published in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS (see notes in link for details).

Lead researcher Professor Robert Hazen, of the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory and George Mason University. Said “This is a significant advance in our abilities to recognise biochemical signs of life on other worlds. It opens the way to using smart sensors on unmanned spaceships to search for signs of life”.

Since the early 1950’s scientists have known that given the right conditions, mixing simple chemicals can form some of the more complex molecules required for life, such as amino acids. Since then, many more of the components necessary for life, such as the nucleotides needed to make DNA, have been detected in space. But how do we know if these are of biological origin, or if they are made by another abiotic process over time. Without knowing that, we don’t know if we have detected life.

Bob Hazen said “We are asking a fundamental question; Is there something fundamentally different about the chemistry of life compared to the chemistry of the inanimate world? Are there “chemical rules of life” that influence the diversity and distribution of biomolecules? Can we deduce those rules and use them to guide our efforts to model life’s origins or to detect subtle signs of life on other worlds? We found that there is.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1002314

[caltrek]

SETI Research Say Aliens Could Use Black Holes as Quantum Computers
by Kiona Smith
December 21, 2023

Introduction:

(Inverse) We’ve searched the skies for alien signals in the form of radio waves and reflected light from massive orbiting structures. But physicists Gia Dvali (of the Max Planck Institute for Physics) and Zara Osmanov (of the Free University of Tblisi) say we should also be looking for neutrinos and bursts of radiation from tiny black holes spawned as alien supercomputers.

Dvali and Osmanov suggest, in a recent paper, that technologically-advanced aliens (if they’re out there) might use small black holes as hardware for their quantum computers. And with telescopes like IceCube, we might be able to detect the output of those alien computer programs.

They published their work in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

Read more of the Inverse article here: https://www.inverse.com/science/aliens ... adiation

For the publication by the International Journal of Astrobiology: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journal ... D5AC81C90

[caltrek]

COSMIC: The SETI Institute Is Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe with Breakthrough Technology at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array
January 8, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) January 8, 2024, Mountain View, CA -- In a groundbreaking cosmic quest, the SETI Institute’s Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster (COSMIC) at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This cutting-edge technology is not a distinct telescope; it’s a detector. COSMIC searches for extraterrestrial signals and paves the way for future science using a copy of the raw data from the telescope’s observations. At the heart of COSMIC’s mission is pursuing the age old question: Are we alone in the universe? Project scientist Dr. Chenoa Tremblay and the team detailed the project in a paper published in The Astronomical Journal.

What sets COSMIC apart is its adaptability to the future. The system is designed for future upgrades, ensuring it remains at the forefront of cosmic exploration. With the potential to expand its capabilities, COSMIC could soon cover more stars, explore new frequencies, and enhance our understanding of the vast cosmic tapestry. It is important to note that COSMIC’s capabilities go beyond searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. Future upgrades could unlock new explorations, from finding fast radio bursts with a submillisecond temporal resolution to studying spectral line science and axionic dark matter.

“COSMIC introduces modern Ethernet-based digital architecture on the VLA, allowing for a test bed for future technologies as we move into the next generation era,” said Tremblay. “Currently, the focus is on creating one of the largest surveys for technological signals, with over 500,000 sources observed in the first six months. However, the flexibility of the design allows for a wide range of other scientific opportunities, such as studying fast radio burst pulse structures and searching for axion dark matter candidates. We hope to open opportunities for other scientists to use our high time (nanoseconds) or our high spectral resolution (sub-Hz) to complete their research. It is an exciting time for increasing the capabilities of this historic telescope.”

COSMIC stands on the shoulders of giants like Project Phoenix, with the capacity to search millions of stars and the potential to expand to tens of millions—a leap in scope and sensitivity.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1030547

caltrek’s comment: This reminds me of a point made by Carl Sagan, that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence may also result in other unanticipated scientific discoveries otherwise unrelated to the actual existence of alien life.

[firestar464]

Research Sheds Light on Why Advanced Extraterrestrial Civilizations May Be Confined to Their Planets

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... r-BB1j0CtN

[firestar464]

And back to our regular scheduled programming.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/di ... i-AA1nJh3N

[weatheriscool]

53 Stars Are Possible Dyson Spheres
May 17, 2024 by Brian Wang

Dyson spheres (aka Dyson Swarms) are hypothetical structures where civilizations build solar power satellite collection around a star. We currently generate about 50 megawatts from space based solar power out of a total of about 20 terawatts. The total solar energy that hits the earth is about 10,000 times more and the total energy from the sun is 10 trillion times more. A civilization that could harness most of the energy from a star would have a trillion times more energy than we do now.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/05/5 ... heres.html

[caltrek]

An Astrobiologist Reveals Why She’s Optimistic We’ll Find Alien Life On Another Planet
by Kiona Smith
May 26, 2024

Introduction:

(Inverse) Astrobiologist Lisa Kaltenegger spends her days building miniature worlds.

Kaltenegger and her colleagues study how different species and combinations of bacteria, plants, and fungi change the chemistry of the air around them. They then program all of that data into computer simulations that model how the whole atmosphere of a planet changes as life evolves. She then translates those model atmospheres into the spectrum of light astronomers might see through a telescope like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Someday, she hopes that the vials of well-tended microbes, tiny samples of hot lava, and thousands of lines of computer code in her labs will help astronomers recognize the chemical signs of life in the atmosphere of a distant planet.

In her recent book, Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos, Kaltenegger describes the result as a “light fingerprint” for life (and one of its telltale features is a combination of oxygen and methane).

Inverse talked with Kaltenegger about exoplanets, aliens, and how science mixes caution with optimism.

Read the interview with Lisa Kaltenegger here: https://www.inverse.com/science/alien- ... mos-space