Tag: SETI
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A not-so-simple response: Messages beamed to aliens amid debate over perils
The European Space Agency’s Cebreros Station in Spain was due to transmit an 866-second encoded radio message in the direction of Polaris, 434 light-years away. (Credit: ESA) More than 3,000 messages were beamed toward the North Star today by a powerful radio telescope – and although the exercise was largely symbolic, it serves to revive a debate…
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Breakthrough Watch: Alien-hunting effort takes telescopic aim at Proxima Centauri b
The European Extremely Large Telescope is one of the yet-to-be-built observatories that could target the nearest exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, for direct imaging.. (Credit: ESO) GUADALAJARA, Mexico – A multimillion-dollar campaign to look for evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations has added telescopic observations of the nearest known exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, to its agenda. Last month’s announcement…
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Russian SETI researchers say interesting radio signal was definitely not aliens
Detectors for the RATAN-600 telescope form a wide ring in this fisheye view. (Credit: SAO-RAS) Russian astronomers acknowledge that they picked up an “interesting radio signal” in the course of their search for alien transmissions, but that the signal was most probably a case of terrestrial interference. “It can be said with confidence that no…
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Still no aliens in the SETI quest: Lessons learned from that strange radio signal
The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia is tracking a faraway sunlike star known as HD 164595 for the Breakthrough Listen Initiative. No alien blips have been received so far. (Credit: NRAO) Fifteen months after an intriguing radio signal was picked up from a sunlike star in the constellation Hercules, follow-up observations over the past…
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They’re not saying it’s aliens, but signal traced to sunlike star sparks SETI interest
SETI researchers say an intriguing radio spike was detected last year by the RATAN-600 radio telescope. (Credit: SAO RAS) SETI researchers are buzzing about a strong spike in radio signals that seemed to come from the direction of a sunlike star in the constellation Hercules, known as HD 164595. The signal conceivably fits the profile…
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Russian billionaire devotes $100 million to star flight initiative
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Entrepreneur Yuri Milner, holding up a prototype StarChip spacecraft he hopes to develop and, within a generation, launch to the nearest star using ground-based lasers and ultra-thin light sails. Credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Breakthrough Starshot Russian billionaire Yuri Milner plans to spend $100 million over the next…
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SETI Institute launches radio search for alien life amid 20,000 red dwarf stars
An artist’s conception shows a planetary system around a red dwarf star. (Credit: ESO) The SETI Institute is shifting the focus of its search for extraterrestrial intelligence to places that could harbor life that’s not as we know it: 20,000 red-dwarf star systems. “Red dwarfs – the dim bulbs of the cosmos – have received scant attention…
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How to do a reality check on the search for life beyond our solar system
When Earth passes in front of the sun, it blocks a small part of the sun’s light. Potential observers outside our solar system might be able to detect the resulting dimming of the sun and study Earth’s atmosphere. (Credit: Axel Quetz / MPIA / NASA) The past decade has brought about a revolution in astronomers’…
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Why haven’t we found aliens? Here’s the bad news, and the good news
SETI pioneer Jill Tarter pays a visit to the Allen Telescope Array in California, one of the prime sites for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. (Credit: SETI Institute) It’s a question that goes back decades: If other civilizations have arisen beyond Earth over the course of billions of years, why haven’t we heard from them?…
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‘Alien megastructure’ revisited: Oddly dimming star poses new mystery
An artist’s representation shows a crumbling megastructure known as a Dyson sphere orbiting KIC 8462852. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar / SETI International) He’s not saying it’s aliens – but an astronomer has raised new questions about KIC 8462852, the strange star that stirred up a debate about “alien megastructures” months ago. In a paper submitted to Astrophysical Journal…