Giant Radio Telescope Could Detect E.T.'s Call

[Peter1469]

A new array of telescopes will be online in a couple of years to continue the search for life out there.

A huge telescope array will allow scientists to conduct the most sensitive and exhaustive search for signs of alien civilizations to date when it comes online, the project's backers say.

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA), currently planned to begin construction in 2018, could enable the search for intelligent alien life to piggy-back on other scientific observations, scouring the galaxy with unprecedented precision.


"A unique aspect for the search of life in the universe is the question of whether advanced lifeevolves intelligence," Andrew Siemion said at the Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago in June. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Alien Life]


Siemion, who holds joint appointments with the University of California, Berkeley, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and Radbound University in the Netherlands, hunts for signs of alien technology in the universe.

[waltky]

China lookin' for ET too...

China fits final piece on world's largest radio telescope
Mon, 04 Jul 2016 - China has fitted the final piece on what is set to be the world's largest radio telescope, the size of 30 football fields and worth $180m (£135m).

China has fitted the final piece on what will be the world's largest radio telescope, due to begin operations in September, state media report. The 500m-wide Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, is the size of 30 football fields. The $180m (£135m) satellite project will be used to explore space and help look for extraterrestrial life, Xinhua news agency reported. Advancing China's space program remains a key priority for Beijing. Scientists are now due to start debugging and trials of the telescope, Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences told Xinhua.

The last panel of China"s world largest radio telescope named "FAST", is installed in Pingtang county, Guizhou Province, China

What will the telescope do?

* Survey neutral hydrogen in distant galaxies and detect faint pulsars (highly magnetised balls of neutrons)
* More than 2,000 pulsars so far said to have been detected
* Improve the chances of detecting low frequency gravitational waves
* Help in the search for extraterrestrial life

FAST will replace the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is around 300m (984ft) in diameter, as the world's largest telescope. China has stated that its space program has peaceful purposes, but the US Defence Department has said it was pursuing activities aimed to "prevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis," reported news agency Reuters. Beijing is due to launch a "core module" for its first space station in 2018.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-36700664

See also:

E.T. phone home: China eyes hunt for alien life with giant telescope
July 3, 2016 - China on Sunday hoisted the final piece into position on what will be the world's largest radio telescope, which it will use to explore space and help in the hunt for extraterrestrial life, state media said.

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, is the size of 30 football fields and has been hewed out of a mountain in the poor southwestern province of Guizhou. Scientists will now start debugging and trials of the telescope, Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which built the telescope, told the official Xinhua news agency. "The project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life," the report paraphrased Zheng as saying.

The 1.2-billion yuan ($180 million) radio telescope would be a global leader for the next one to two decades, Zheng added. The telescope, which has taken about five years to build, is expected to begin operations in September. Advancing China's space program is a priority for Beijing, with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power.

China's ambitions include putting a man on the moon by 2036 and building a space station, work on which has already begun. China insists its program is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it is pursuing activities aimed to prevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/e-t-phone...89.html?ref=gs

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says dey's tryin' to make contact with us...

Space shocker: Proof of life found in another galaxy after bursts of ‘alien’ cosmic radio waves detected
Saturday 7th January, 2017 - In a new revelation, scientists have found that short bursts of ‘alien’ cosmic radio waves - that have been puzzling astronomers since they were detected ten years back, may be originating from the dwarf galaxy that lies approximately three billion light years from Earth.

Nearly ten years ago, fast radio bursts lasting just a few milliseconds astonished scientists as they seemed to be originating from outside the galaxy. It was hence understood that these must have been very strong to be able to pass through such a large space in order to be observed in our galaxy and on Earth. After another series of bursts emerged in 2012, scientists got an opportunity to monitor its area of the sky through the use of the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico and the Arecibo radio dish in Puerto Rico. Around nine bursts had been discovered over a month’s span. Later, European and American radio interferometer arrays were able to locate the bursts to an area within one-hundredth of an arcsecond, lying within 100 light years in diameter.

Subsequently, deep imaging of that region by the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii showed a faint dwarf galaxy. It was also found later that the galaxy continuously emits low-level radio waves. This is typical of a galaxy which has an active nucleus that indicates that it has a super-massive black-hole in the centre. This newly discovered galaxy displays a low abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium. This implies that this galaxy was formed during the universe’s middle age. Moreover, the fact that such fast radio bursts originate from this galaxy suggests that this galaxy may have a connection to other such events occurring in similar dwarf galaxies.

In a press statement, Shriharsh Tendulkar, one of the astronomers who discovered the bursts said, “The host galaxy for this FRB appears to be a very humble and unassuming dwarf galaxy, which is less than 1 percent of the mass or our Milky Way Galaxy.That’s surprising. One would generally expect most FRBs to come from large galaxies which have the largest numbers of stars and neutron stars — remnants of massive stars." He added, “This dwarf galaxy has fewer stars, but is forming stars at a high rate, which may suggest that FRBs are linked to young neutron stars.” "There are also two other classes of extreme events — long duration gamma-ray bursts and superluminous supernovae — that frequently occur in dwarf galaxies, as well. This discovery may hint at links between FRBs and those two kinds of events."

Casey Law, an astronomer from University of Berkeley has also made a press statement. She is also the one who has created the software which analyses such rapid energy bursts. She said, "We really pushed hard to capture this terabyte-per-hour datastream reliably and set up a real-time platform for extracting these very faint fast bursts from that massive datastream.” Further, Shami Chatterjee, who is the team lead at Cornell University, said, “Finding the host galaxy of this FRB, and its distance, is a big step forward, but we still have much more to do before we fully understand what these things are.”

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/2...waves-detected

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd coulda swore it was aliens tryin' to contact him... 'Mystery' signal from space is solved. It's not aliens
Astronomers have finally solved the mystery of peculiar signals coming from a nearby star, a story that sparked intense public speculation this week that perhaps, finally, alien life had been found.

It hasn't. The signal, which has been formally named "Weird!" was interference from a distant satellite. Of course, astronomers said all along that extra-terrestrials were quite far at the bottom of the list of possibilities for the signals detected from Ross 128, a dim star known as a red dwarf some 11 light-years away. To experts, the true mystery was that they couldn't figure out if the bursts were unusual stellar activity, emissions from other background objects, or interference from satellite communications. "However, many people were more interested in the signals as potential proof of transmissions from an extraterrestrial intelligent civilization," wrote Abel Mendez, director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo in a blog post Friday, revealing the true nature of the signals.

Astronomers detected strange signals that seemed to be coming from a dwarf star about 11 light-years away, but have now determiend that the signals are interference from a distant geostationary satellite

After further fueling speculation by summoning the world experts in the hunt for life elsewhere in the universe -- The SETI Berkeley Research Center at the University of California -- the team issued its conclusion. "We are now confident about the source of the Weird! Signal," Mendez wrote. "The best explanation is that the signals are transmissions from one or more geostationary satellites." The signals only appeared around Ross 128 because it is located "close to the celestial equator where many geostationary satellites are placed," Mendez added.

- Study of people -

He also released the results of an informal survey that he had posted on his website, asking people to weigh in on what they thought the source of the signals was, and whether or not they were scientists well versed in the matter. "Nearly 800 people participated in this informal survey (including more than 60 astronomers)," he wrote. The whole group's consensus was that the signals were most likely coming from some story of stellar activity, or some kind of astronomical phenomenon. Most people discounted the possibility of radio interference or instrumental failures, saying these were least likely. This, Mendez explained, was hardly a scientific approach to the question. "This is interesting since in the absence of solid information about the signal, most astronomers would think that these were probably the most likely explanation," Mendez wrote.

Furthermore, about one quarter of respondents said "the most likely explanation of the signal was that of a communication with an Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI)," he added. "These results reflect the still high expectations the public maintains on the possibility of contacting ETI." Still, all was not lost in these last few weeks of speculation and tumult. "The Planetary Habitability Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo made many new friends from this experience," Mendez said, adding it had been a "great experience of open science." "The lesson here is that we all need to continue exploring and sharing results openly. Some people prefer to only learn about the successes, but others prefer science in real-time, no matter the end result."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techno...1NI?srcref=rss

[Crepitus]

Uncle Ferd coulda swore it was aliens tryin' to contact him... 'Mystery' signal from space is solved. It's not aliens
Astronomers have finally solved the mystery of peculiar signals coming from a nearby star, a story that sparked intense public speculation this week that perhaps, finally, alien life had been found.

This explanation doesn't make sense. There are
Is no such thing as a "distant geostationary satellite". All geostationary orbits are at the same altitude.

[MisterVeritis]

This explanation doesn't make sense. There are
Is no such thing as a "distant geostationary satellite". All geostationary orbits are at the same altitude.

Twenty-two thousand miles away seems distant to me.