Recently, astronomers have been trying to decode the sudden increase in radio signals coming from the direction of a star similar to the Sun. This phenomenon raises speculation about the possibility that aliens are trying to contact Earth.
The radio signals appear to originate from the star HD 164595 in the constellation Hercules, about 95 light-years from Earth. According to a report by a team of research experts at the Centauri Dreams Organization, the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya (Russia) received strange signals for the first time on May 15 last year.
The “war” to find life in the universe is getting hotter as a trio of world-famous figures including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, Russian billionaire businessman Yuri Milner and physicist Stephen Hawking revealed their plans. Search for alien life on “Earth 2.0” – a planet similar to Earth and also at a closer distance to Earth.
In fact, the official name of “Earth 2.0” is Proxima b, a rocky planet that is believed to have all the conditions for life and is only 4 light years from Earth. According to many sources, this trio contributes to the budget of an ambitious $ 100 million project called “Breakthrough Listen”, using the world’s most powerful telescopes to listen to the messages of outsiders. planet.
Three men among the world’s richest and smartest hope to be the first to discover alien life: Yuri Milner, Mark Zuckerburg and Stephen Hawking.
Strange signs
For decades, humans have been in the race to find life beyond Earth. Although specific evidence of alien life is still quite vague and unconfirmed, people still have expectations and begin the journey of discovery on spaceships.
Those expectations are not unfounded when the US Space Agency (NASA) has officially announced shocking findings from images taken on Jupiter’s moon Europa, showing potential signs. life here.
Accordingly, NASA scientists have detected a plume of water vapor rising from the surface of the moon Europa. Jupiter’s moon Europa has a diameter of about 3,057 km, smaller than Earth’s moon. This 4.5 billion year old object has a frozen surface.
Scientists have long speculated that there might be an ocean here. Finding the water vapor plume is an important discovery, meaning it will be possible to explore Europa’s ocean and search for organic chemicals, even signs of life originating there, without the need to dig deep into the ice.
In the latest efforts, scientists are focusing on studying HD 164595 because it is similar to the Sun and has at least one “Earth-like” planet orbiting. The average temperature of HD 164595 is slightly above -261.15°C, and this star is nearly 100 million years younger than the Sun. Some experts say there may still be other, undiscovered planets around HD 164595.
Accordingly, the sudden increase in radio signals emitted from this star is most likely the result of a natural phenomenon, such as “microlensing”, in which the star’s gravity causes increased sharply and converged with signals from elsewhere. Experts emphasize the need to monitor HD 164595 regularly. They asked the SETI program (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Beings) to find out more thoroughly whether this was a message from aliens or not.
SETI will use the Allen space telescope system in California (USA) and the Boquete SETI optical observatory in Panama to track HD 164595. When finding out the strength of the signal, researchers said, if it appears emitting from an isotropic source, it most likely belongs to the Kardashev type II civilization.
If it were a narrow beam signal focused on the Solar system, it would belong to the Kardashev type I civilization. The Kardashev scale is a way to measure the progress of extraterrestrial civilizations, based on the level of energy emitted.
In particular, the Kardashev type I civilization is assigned to species capable of collecting all types of energy available in a nearby star, gathering and storing it to satisfy the needs of the population. The Type II Kardashev civilization is more developed, and can draw power from its star.
Racing non-stop
Experts have been searching for extraterrestrial life for the past six decades, but so far there have been no signs of other civilizations in space. To support the search for extraterrestrial life, China recently began building the world’s largest radio telescope – which, according to the country, “will lead to discoveries beyond our reach.” human imagination”.
With a diameter of up to 500m, the FAST telescope located among the hills in Guizhou province has cost China hundreds of millions of dollars, surpassing the Arecibo observatory located in Puerto Rico (300m in diameter). to become the world’s largest telescope – with a reflector area equivalent to 30 football fields. In addition, compared to Arecibo, FAST has twice the sensitivity and survey speed 5-10 times faster.
With the official operation of the world’s largest radio telescope, China has highlighted its growing space ambitions and desire to find a place in the international scientific community. China considers FAST one of the symbols of space science achievements, and will become one of the world’s most prestigious telescope projects in the coming decades.
China considers FAST one of the symbols of space science achievements and will become one of the world’s most prestigious telescope projects in the coming decades.
FAST will use a giant parabolic dish made up of 4,450 different panels for the purpose of identifying signals emitted from stars and galaxies as well as detecting alien life.
Besides, FAST will also probe wavelengths from far away in space. In a test session before officially going into operation, the FAST telescope successfully detected electromagnetic waves emitted from a supernova explosion about 1,300 light years away from Earth.
In addition to China, the race to find extraterrestrial life is even more exciting when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Russian businessman Yuri Milner and physicist Stephen Hawking are investing in the “Breakthrough Listen” project worth 100 million US dollars. million dollars. This project uses the world’s most powerful telescopes to detect signals of life from the rocky planet Proxima b, also known as “Earth 2.0”.
Previously, in August 2016, experts officially announced evidence of the presence of Proxima b – a planet with a solid surface as well as the possibility of adequate conditions to support life. More importantly, this planet orbits around the substar Proxima Centauri – a star only 4 light years away (40 trillion km).
The “Breakthrough Listen” project is already collecting data from other star systems using the Green Bank observatory in Virginia (USA) and the Lick automatic astronomical observatory in California.
Since early October 2016, the “Breakthrough Listen” project team began searching for radio frequencies other than natural background sounds using the Parkes observatory (Australia). As expected, this project will collect data within 10 years from the most advanced observatories in the world.
Billionaire Milner shared, “Breakthrough Listen” began just a few months after he and professor Stephen Hawking, with support from Mark Zuckerburg, launched the Breakingthrough Starshot project – a project to launch a spacecraft. as small as Alpha Centauri within a generation.
At that time, the three people hoped to find a planet in the Alpha Centauri system. After collecting the first data about Proxima b, they had a clear goal and officially pursued the “Breakthrough Listen” mission.
In an interview with the media, Professor Stephen Hawking completely believes in this project. He shared: “When I look up at the stars, I always imagine someone looking back at us. The older I get, the more convinced I am of the idea that we are not alone in the universe.” And that’s also the reason why Stephen King thinks that maybe humans will find “alien friends” before they reach Earth…