Post by WeAreAllOne on Jan 30, 2017 4:04:44 GMT -8
www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/strange-star-has-et-seekers-looking-closely-for-signs-of-life/ar-AAkJ4ol?OCID=ansmsnnews11
Berkeley astronomers on a new hunt for E.T. are aiming one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes at the most bizarre star ever detected.
They have tuned the big telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia to listen for signals from an object in space called Tabby’s Star, whose implausible behavior is puzzling astronomers all over the world.
That star might conceivably be a sign that some civilization far more advanced than our own is, or has been, building some kind of giant structure far off in the Milky Way, they say.
The Berkeley team has also mobilized a second huge telescope in Australia to search for E.T. signals from another unique star — the closest of all the stars to Earth, just a few trillion miles away.
The new push to enlist two of the world’s biggest radio telescopes in the quest for signs of alien life is centered at UC Berkeley in a $100 million effort called Breakthrough Listen, financed by Yuri Milner, the Russian-born physicist and tech billionaire in Silicon Valley.
Andrew Siemion, director of Berkeley’s SETI Research Center, and his team of alien hunters are watching Tabby’s Star from the Green Bank Observatory because the big radio telescope there is the largest steerable instrument on the planet and they can aim it directly at that star nearly 1,500 light-years away.
The Kepler space telescope detected the star last year and listed it as KIC 8462852. Then Yale astronomer Tabetha Boyajian observed its radio emissions brightening and dimming by as much as 20 percent in such strange, irregular pulses that neither she nor any other astronomer can explain it. An astronomy crowdsourcing campaign named it for her: Tabby’s Star.
Some observations suggest the star’s erratic dimming might be caused by swarms of other planets or thousands of cold, dusty comets passing in front of it. Or maybe it’s icy clouds of dust and gas somewhere outside our own outer solar system that are dimming the star’s face in an on-off pattern.
The most far-out speculation is that some highly advanced civilization on the planet around Tabby’s Star has captured all the star’s immense energy and has been building a huge mega-structure around the planet: a giant power plant to meet the civilization’s insatiable energy needs.
Such structures have long been proposed by Freeman Dyson, the famed Princeton physicist and mathematician who conceived of them as space habitats the size of asteroids. They are known as Dyson spheres.
“That’s a possible explanation, although it’s a remote one,” Siemion said, “but if there is a technology around that star, we’ll have the best odds of finding it.”
Jason Wright, an astronomy professor at Pennsylvania State University now on the Listen team, is leading the Green Bank quest, first working at the telescope in West Virginia and now gathering data by remote control from Berkeley.
“I don’t know how to assess the Dyson sphere hypothesis, but it’s important to keep it in mind,” Wright said. “I don’t know the odds that we’ll find anything. I presume they’re small, but I also know that the Breakthrough Listen effort at Green Bank is the best chance we’ve ever had to find something.”
Dan Werthimer, chief scientist at the Berkeley SETI Research Center, said he’s optimistic about life in the galaxy. “There are a trillion planets in our Milky Way galaxy, and lots of those planets are good places for life,” he said. “It would be bizarre if we’re the only ones.”
Green Bank first made astronomical history 56 years ago when a young astronomer named Frank Drake used its radio telescope to start the world’s first search for alien radio signals. He called his quest Project Ozma. At 86, Drake, now a retired UC Santa Cruz astronomy professor, is still hunting for signals from E.T. at the Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton near San Jose.
At the Australian telescope at Parkes in New South Wales, the Breakthrough Listen astronomers have focused their quest for alien radio signals on what’s called an exoplanet orbiting the nearest star outside our own solar system. It’s called Proxima centauri, 4.24 light-years from Earth, and has long been a favorite locale for science fiction writers, featured in some 20 novels, movies, TV series and video games.
Recent observations indicate that its planet, named Proxima b, is about as massive as Earth and circles its star in an orbit that keeps it warm enough for liquid water — and possibly life — to survive on its surface. The planet’s parent star appears to be generating magnetic storms perhaps caused by sun spots that can cover its surface.
“But once we knew there was a planet next door to us, we had to ask the (E.T.) question — and it’s a fitting observation for the Parkes telescope,” Siemion said.
A light-year is only about 6 trillion miles.
“To find a civilization just 4.2 light-years away would change everything,” he said.
Berkeley astronomers on a new hunt for E.T. are aiming one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes at the most bizarre star ever detected.
They have tuned the big telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia to listen for signals from an object in space called Tabby’s Star, whose implausible behavior is puzzling astronomers all over the world.
That star might conceivably be a sign that some civilization far more advanced than our own is, or has been, building some kind of giant structure far off in the Milky Way, they say.
The Berkeley team has also mobilized a second huge telescope in Australia to search for E.T. signals from another unique star — the closest of all the stars to Earth, just a few trillion miles away.
The new push to enlist two of the world’s biggest radio telescopes in the quest for signs of alien life is centered at UC Berkeley in a $100 million effort called Breakthrough Listen, financed by Yuri Milner, the Russian-born physicist and tech billionaire in Silicon Valley.
Andrew Siemion, director of Berkeley’s SETI Research Center, and his team of alien hunters are watching Tabby’s Star from the Green Bank Observatory because the big radio telescope there is the largest steerable instrument on the planet and they can aim it directly at that star nearly 1,500 light-years away.
The Kepler space telescope detected the star last year and listed it as KIC 8462852. Then Yale astronomer Tabetha Boyajian observed its radio emissions brightening and dimming by as much as 20 percent in such strange, irregular pulses that neither she nor any other astronomer can explain it. An astronomy crowdsourcing campaign named it for her: Tabby’s Star.
Some observations suggest the star’s erratic dimming might be caused by swarms of other planets or thousands of cold, dusty comets passing in front of it. Or maybe it’s icy clouds of dust and gas somewhere outside our own outer solar system that are dimming the star’s face in an on-off pattern.
The most far-out speculation is that some highly advanced civilization on the planet around Tabby’s Star has captured all the star’s immense energy and has been building a huge mega-structure around the planet: a giant power plant to meet the civilization’s insatiable energy needs.
Such structures have long been proposed by Freeman Dyson, the famed Princeton physicist and mathematician who conceived of them as space habitats the size of asteroids. They are known as Dyson spheres.
“That’s a possible explanation, although it’s a remote one,” Siemion said, “but if there is a technology around that star, we’ll have the best odds of finding it.”
Jason Wright, an astronomy professor at Pennsylvania State University now on the Listen team, is leading the Green Bank quest, first working at the telescope in West Virginia and now gathering data by remote control from Berkeley.
“I don’t know how to assess the Dyson sphere hypothesis, but it’s important to keep it in mind,” Wright said. “I don’t know the odds that we’ll find anything. I presume they’re small, but I also know that the Breakthrough Listen effort at Green Bank is the best chance we’ve ever had to find something.”
Dan Werthimer, chief scientist at the Berkeley SETI Research Center, said he’s optimistic about life in the galaxy. “There are a trillion planets in our Milky Way galaxy, and lots of those planets are good places for life,” he said. “It would be bizarre if we’re the only ones.”
Green Bank first made astronomical history 56 years ago when a young astronomer named Frank Drake used its radio telescope to start the world’s first search for alien radio signals. He called his quest Project Ozma. At 86, Drake, now a retired UC Santa Cruz astronomy professor, is still hunting for signals from E.T. at the Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton near San Jose.
At the Australian telescope at Parkes in New South Wales, the Breakthrough Listen astronomers have focused their quest for alien radio signals on what’s called an exoplanet orbiting the nearest star outside our own solar system. It’s called Proxima centauri, 4.24 light-years from Earth, and has long been a favorite locale for science fiction writers, featured in some 20 novels, movies, TV series and video games.
Recent observations indicate that its planet, named Proxima b, is about as massive as Earth and circles its star in an orbit that keeps it warm enough for liquid water — and possibly life — to survive on its surface. The planet’s parent star appears to be generating magnetic storms perhaps caused by sun spots that can cover its surface.
“But once we knew there was a planet next door to us, we had to ask the (E.T.) question — and it’s a fitting observation for the Parkes telescope,” Siemion said.
A light-year is only about 6 trillion miles.
“To find a civilization just 4.2 light-years away would change everything,” he said.