{"id":17787,"date":"2020-02-21T21:48:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T13:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/seti-and-other-alien-hunting-strategies-are-dealing-with-new-tools-and-new-troubles\/"},"modified":"2020-02-21T21:48:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T13:48:05","slug":"seti-and-other-alien-hunting-strategies-are-dealing-with-new-tools-and-new-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/seti-and-other-alien-hunting-strategies-are-dealing-with-new-tools-and-new-troubles\/","title":{"rendered":"SETI and other alien-hunting strategies are dealing with new tools \u2014 and new troubles"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_549072\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-549072\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-549072\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200221-panoseti-630x393.jpg\" alt=\"PANOSETI on Lick Observatory\" width=\"630\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200221-panoseti-630x393.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200221-panoseti-768x479.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200221-panoseti.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-549072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two PANOSETI telescopes are installed in the recently renovated Astrograph Dome at the Lick Observatory in California. PANOSETI will use a configuration of many SETI telescopes to allow simultaneous monitoring of the entire observable sky. (\u00a9 Laurie Hatch Photo via UCSD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, better known as SETI, is taking advantage of a widening array of strategies \u2014 ranging from sophisticated laser searches, to a new type of wide-angle optical observatory, to arrangements to conduct the search simultaneously with other scientific efforts.<\/p>\n<p>But new technologies are also bringing new challenges: For example, how will radio astronomers deal with the noise created by a fast-growing number of satellites in low Earth orbit?<\/p>\n<p>The technological pluses and minuses for the SETI quest, and for other strategies aimed at detecting life beyond our solar system, took the spotlight in Seattle last weekend during a session presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re bringing a Silicon Valley approach to the search for advanced life,\u201d said Andrew Siemion, who\u2019s the director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center as well as principal investigator for the 10-year, $100 million Breakthrough Listen project. \u201cUsually I add that we\u2019re trying to bring the good parts of Silicon Valley to the search, not necessarily some of the bad parts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Siemion focused on the good parts, including the public release of the second big batch of radio data from Breakthrough Listen. That campaign got its start nearly five years ago with a high-profile kickoff from Israeli-Russian tech billionaire Yuri Milner and the late British physicist Stephen Hawking.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Breakthrough Listen to Partner with the MeerKAT Telescope to Search a Million Stars\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tq-9VRYnOcU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Since then, Breakthrough Listen has forged partnerships with radio telescope arrays around the world \u2014&nbsp;most recently with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory\u2019s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, which took a star turn in the SETI movie \u201cContact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re developing a system that will allow us to tap all of the data that the VLA produces and use it 24 hours a day, seven days a week to search for anomalies alongside other science,\u201d Siemion said.<\/p>\n<p>If NRAO wins the go-ahead for a next-generation upgrade of the Jansky VLA, Breakthrough LIsten\u2019s capability would be similarly upgraded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first radio telescope that would ever be built that would allow us to be sensitive to leakage radiation \u2014 radio signals that are as weak as our isotropic emissions from the planet \u2014 from a handful of nearby stars,\u201d Siemion said. In other words, it would theoretically be capable of picking up the signals coming from E.T.\u2019s smartphone on Proxima Centauri b.<\/p>\n<p>Huge radio dishes aren\u2019t the only instruments being used in the hunt for alien signals: Pioneer SETI astronomer Jill Tarter touted the development of a new type of wide-angle optical observatory, known as Panoramic SETI or PANOSETI, which would be capable of recording brief flashes of light. Such flashes may be associated with weird phenomena known as fast radio bursts, and there\u2019s a chance they might follow a pattern suggestive of intentional transmissions from a far-off civilization.<\/p>\n<p>Two prototype PANOSETI telescopes are being tested at the Lick Observatory\u2019s Astrograph Dome in California. The plan calls for building two PANOSETI observatories, each with 80 telescopes arranged to cover the sky. \u201cIf you get a pulse somewhere between a nanosecond and a second in duration, both observatories will see it, and you will be very confident of your result,\u201d Tarter explained.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Astronomer Explains How SETI Searches for Aliens | WIRED\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UVlUy77d-MU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Another long-running project at the SETI Institute, called LaserSETI, takes a different approach to the search for optical signals. LaserSETI\u2019s compact camera enclosures are designed to scan the entire sky for short blips of laser light, from as many as 15 sites around the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince last August, the first two enclosures have been operating on the rooftop of the Robert Ferguson Observatory in Sonoma, California,\u201d Tarter said. \u201cThe next two enclosures are going to be placed in Hawaii, at the Haleakala Observatory. And ultimately, we\u2019ll have something like this globally to look at all the sky, all the time, for transients.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Optical SETI could widen the search for alien signals to a whole new region of the electromagnetic spectrum, but there\u2019s an all-too-earthly obstacle to overcome.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither PANOSETI nor LaserSETI are fully funded, so we can\u2019t say when they might be complete,\u201d Tarter told the Seattle audience. \u201cIf you have an opportunity to provide some funding, both of those projects would benefit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the acronym suggests, SETI looks for the characteristic patterns of intentional signals from beyond the solar system. But there\u2019s growing interest in the search for signs of less advanced life among the stars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not looking for little green men, we\u2019re looking for little green pond slime,\u201d said University of Washington astronomer Victoria Meadows, who heads UW\u2019s Virtual Planetary Laboratory.<\/p>\n<p>In the decade ahead, NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope could track down the first chemical signals of extraterrestrial life processes, perhaps through the detection of such gases as water vapor, methane and carbon dioxide in alien atmospheres. The next generation of ground-based telescopes could also contribute to the quest.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How Do We Learn About a Planet's Atmosphere?\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W1bel0ODIDE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For now, the most promising nearby target for closer inspection is the TRAPPIST-1 system, which appears to have more than one potentially habitable planet. But Meadows warned that appearances can be deceiving. Computer simulations suggest that some seemingly habitable planets could have had their oceans cooked away early in the process of planetary evolution. Such planets turn out looking more like hellish Venus than habitable Earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you think of the Earth as a kernel of corn, then Venus is like the popcorn of the solar system. \u2026 Can we discriminate between a nice habitable planet, and one that\u2019s undergone ocean or atmospheric loss to be in the popcorn zone?\u201d Meadows said.<\/p>\n<p>She said it\u2019s likely to take more than the James Webb Space Telescope to nail down the chemical case for life beyond the solar system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJWST will really give us a tantalizing glimpse that would be potentially habitable. \u2026 We\u2019ll get this tantalizing glimpse, but we won\u2019t get anything really definitive,\u201d Meadows said. \u201cTo do that, we are going to need far more capable missions, and happily, NASA is currently considering them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several mission concepts with implications for astrobiology \u2014 including HabEx, LUVOIR, Lynx and Origins \u2014 are due to be assessed during a decadal survey of astronomical priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the next couple of decades, those new spacecraft should give astronomers a much better view of the heavens. But other types of new spacecraft are giving astronomers pause: Several companies \u2014 including SpaceX, OneWeb, Telesat and Amazon \u2014 are planning to put thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit to provide global broadband internet access. The satellites already launched by OneWeb and SpaceX have sparked concerns about radio interference, an issue that strikes at the heart of the traditional SETI quest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it happened that some civilization is transmitting in exactly one of the frequencies used by one of these companies, there\u2019s going to be a problem detecting it,\u201d NRAO Director Tony Beasley told GeekWire.<\/p>\n<p>Beasley said he and other astronomers are involved in discussions with SpaceX to work out ways to minimize the potential harm, and he\u2019s hoping to have similar talks with OneWeb and the other satellite constellation companies. One of the measures being discussed would involve switching off the satellites for brief periods while they pass over sensitive radio dishes. Other measures could involve processing radio data to cancel out the satellites\u2019 effects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are ways with our telescopes to be able to detect nearby moving objects \u2026 and so we do have ways to separate them from celestial signals in some sense,\u201d Beasley said. \u201cBut in general, a noisier environment just makes it harder to hear something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If scientists do hear a confirmed signal from E.T., you can bet that the conflict over constellations would quickly fade away. So would the financial challenges that SETI astronomers currently face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been promised unlimited funding if we detect a signal,\u201d Breakthrough Listen\u2019s Siemion said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two PANOSETI telescopes are installed in the recently renovated Astrograph Dome at the Lick Observatory in California. PANOSETI will use a configuration of many SETI telescopes to allow simultaneous monitoring of the entire observable sky. (\u00a9 Laurie Hatch Photo via UCSD) The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, better known as SETI, is taking advantage of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4858,1874,559,2001,3754],"class_list":["post-17787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aaas","tag-astrobiology","tag-exoplanets","tag-radio-astronomy","tag-seti"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}