 Scientists have invented a new technique for weeding out signals from outer space from false alarms. This could be a major advance for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence that researchers expect to significantly boost confidence in any future detection of alien life. Most of today's searches are conducted by Earth-based radio telescopes that can pick up signals from any ground or satellite radio interference which mimics a civilization outside our solar system. Such false alarms have raised and then dashed hopes since the first dedicated programme began in 1960. Currently, researchers vet these signals by pointing the telescope in a different place in the sky, then returning a few times to the spot where the signal was originally detected to confirm it wasn't a one-off. Even then, the signal could be something weird produced on Earth. The new technique, developed by researchers at the Breakthrough Listen project at the University of California, Berkeley, checks for evidence that the signal has actually passed through interstellar space, eliminating the possibility that it's just interference from microwaves or car engines. Breakthrough Listen is the largest scientific research programme aimed at finding evidence of civilizations beyond Earth. It monitors the skies with radio telescopes in search of 'technosignatures' or what we humans would recognise as signs of technologically-advanced activity. False alarms have raised and then dashed hopes since the first dedicated programme searching for extraterrestrial intelligence began in 1960 (Picture: Shutterstock) The project also targets thousands of individual stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is the likely direction a civilization would beam a signal, with a particular focus on the centre of the ga){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Scientists have invented a new technique for weeding out signals from outer space from false alarms.
This could be a major advance for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence that researchers expect to significantly boost confidence in any future detection of alien life.
Most of today’s searches are conducted by Earth-based radio telescopes that can pick up signals from any ground or satellite radio interference which mimics a civilization outside our solar system.
Such false alarms have raised and then dashed hopes since the first dedicated programme began in 1960.