The Search for Intelligent Extraterrestrials Led to 100 Suspicious Radio Signals from Space 0 8

The world's largest project for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is nearing completion thanks to the help of more than 2 million citizen scientists and the legendary Arecibo Observatory. Launched in 1999, the SETI@Home project attracted millions of volunteers worldwide to detect unusual radio signals in the data from the Arecibo Observatory. This powerful radio telescope in Puerto Rico was destroyed in 2020. In the data from the radio telescope, citizen scientists identified over 12 billion unusual radio signals over 21 years of data collection. Now, scientists from the SETI@Home project have narrowed this list down to 100 of the most likely signals from potential extraterrestrials. These signals are currently being studied using the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, FAST, located in China. The results of the data analysis are presented in two papers published in The Astronomical Journal, reports Live Science.

Scientists believe that potential intelligent extraterrestrials may have reached a similar level of technological development as we have, and therefore may use radio waves for communication. Extraterrestrial civilizations may send radio signals into space in hopes of contacting other civilizations.

The Arecibo telescope was one of the important tools for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. In 1974, scientists sent a radio signal to a nearby star cluster in hopes of contacting an extraterrestrial civilization. The famous "Arecibo Message," transmitted in binary code, included a schematic representation of a human, the structure of DNA, a model of a carbon atom, and a diagram of the telescope. So far, no response from extraterrestrials has been received.

One of the main challenges for scientists searching for signals from intelligent life is that space is filled with radio waves. From hydrogen atoms to supernova explosions, everything emits radio radiation. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish radio signals that may have an artificial origin amid such cosmic noise.

To narrow down the search area for extraterrestrial civilizations, scientists from the SETI@Home project turned to citizen scientists, asking them to download a free program onto their home computers to analyze data from the Arecibo telescope. As a result, from 1999 to 2020, more than 2 million volunteers from 100 countries participated in the project.

In the papers, scientists described the vast array of data collected by project participants and what the thorough analysis of this data led to.

The goal of the SETI@Home project is to search for radio signals from the Milky Way near a radio wavelength of 21 centimeters, which is used to map hydrogen gas in our galaxy. Scientists believe that an extraterrestrial civilization may use this frequency for communication and transmitting signals to other civilizations.

Using a supercomputer, scientists selected 100 radio signals from the 12 billion most interesting signals detected by volunteers that could potentially be sent by extraterrestrials.

These signals were investigated using the FAST radio telescope, but no unusual results have been found so far. However, scientists will continue to use this radio telescope to obtain an even larger dataset that can be processed much faster than before.

Scientists say that while there is currently no irrefutable evidence of artificial radio signals, there is still a possibility that there are signals from extraterrestrials in this data that have gone unnoticed.