Scientists are focusing on listening for signals in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. This region is densely populated with stars and exoplanets that may harbor life.
Could intelligent extraterrestrials be hiding in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy?
We have always been searching for extraterrestrial life by listening for radio pulses from the center of our galaxy. Narrow frequency pulses are naturally emitted by stars known as pulsars, but these pulses are also utilized by humans in technologies such as radar.
An assumed alien spacecraft transmitting radio signals into space. These are the signals scientists are hunting for. (Photo: Breakthrough Listen/Danielle Futselaar).
These pulses stand out against the background noise of space, making them an effective means of communication over vast distances, and an attractive target for our attention during the search for extraterrestrial civilizations.
In a newly published study on May 30, researchers presented a strategy for hunting extraterrestrial life. Graduate student Akshay Suresh from Cornell University in New York, USA, is the lead author of the study.
His team developed software to detect these repeating frequency patterns and tested it against known pulsars to confirm that this software could capture narrow frequencies. These frequency bands are very small, only 1/10th the width of frequencies used by FM radio stations.
Subsequently, the research team applied this method to search for data from the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.
So far, the SETI Institute (a non-profit organization in the USA dedicated to searching for extraterrestrial life) has primarily focused on signals that are emitted continuously.
This new research highlights the superior energy efficiency of a series of pulses as a means of communication between stars. This is also the first comprehensive in-depth study of signals originating from the galactic center.
Scientists are concentrating on listening for signals in this central region because it is densely populated with stars and exoplanets that may support life.
Moreover, if extraterrestrials in the galactic core wish to reach out to the rest of the galaxy, they could send signals sweeping across a range of planets due to their advantageous position in the galaxy’s center.
Researchers indicate that using narrow bandwidth and repeating broadcast forms will be the primary method for extraterrestrials to demonstrate their existence, as the combination of these two factors is unlikely to occur due to random overlap.
This research method employs an algorithm capable of scanning through 1.5 million data samples from the telescope in just 30 minutes. Although researchers did not find any recognizable signals in the first search, they noted that the algorithm’s speed would enhance future search efficiency.
This research project has gathered a massive amount of data, and the technique developed by the team provides a new approach with the hope of “finding a needle in a haystack” and uncovering astonishing evidence of advanced forms of life beyond Earth.
