How can a study be both a failure and a success? Just ask the team of researchers from the SETI Institute in California, the SETI Research Center in Berkeley, California, and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Perth, Australia. Astronomers from these three organizations conducted a vast study of more than 2,800 galaxies in search of “supercivilizations.” Previous work limited itself to probing our Milky Way; here the chosen observation area is much larger.
To achieve this feat, the researchers used the scanning power of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a giant low-frequency radio telescope based in Meekatharra, Western Australia, to detect signs of advanced technology, also called “technosignatures.” The MWA scanned hundreds of galaxies simultaneously, details the American online media The Debrief.
“This work represents a significant advance in our efforts to detect signals from advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. The MWA’s wide field of view and low frequency range make it ideal for this type of search. And the limits we’ve established will guide future studies,” said Chenoa Tremblay, co-author of the study published Aug. 26 in The Astrophysical Journal and a radio astronomer at the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute.
For a signal to be strong enough to be detected from Earth, it must be emitted by a very advanced civilization, much more so than ours. The researchers based their findings on the Kardachev scale, which distinguishes several types of civilizations. According to them, “Type I civilizations are capable of accessing all the energy available on their planet, the…
- Slate.fr
