A strange statement from astronomers about capturing signals from aliens

Astronomers say they have picked up clever signals from other civilizations

The universe is a very lonely place. Admittedly, many people believe in the possibility of other intelligent civilizations coexisting with us in this vast universe. With the world possessing the means and technology that qualifies it to search for these civilizations alien to us, it is important to search for these civilizations and monitor their whereabouts in this universe.

These radio signals that are transmitted to us from civilizations alien to us, scientists agreed to call them "technological fingerprints", to refer to places that send us repeated radio waves outside the range of our solar system.

The importance of researching technological fingerprints

Astronomer Jean-Luc Margot, a lecturer at the University of California, says: “One of the most important advantages of searching for these technological fingerprints and investigating their presence in the universe is that these signals are transmitted to us from far places in the universe, perhaps thousands of light-years, and they do not exhaust much energy.”

Margot adds: “For example, radio waves emitted from a distance of 400 light-years can be sensed. These signals are originally emitted from here, from a ground-based astronomy observatory called the Arecibo Observatory, which represents a technological breakthrough in the search for intelligent civilizations. "Radio signals thousand times more powerful than Arecipio's radio waves can be detected from the center of the Milky Way."

Astronomers confirm that they have picked up signals from other intelligent civilizations - the possibility of other intelligent civilizations sharing with us living in this vast universe - life outside Earth

Recently, Margot and his team conducted new research to investigate and monitor strange technological fingerprints in the universe, using another powerful telescope, the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.

Since April 2018 and through 2019, researchers have worked by leaps and bounds about four hours a day on these telescopes to investigate 31 solar systems that contain suns much like ours. The results of the research came with the possibility of about 26,631,913 technological fingerprints of other intelligent civilizations in the universe.

What is radio interference?

A careful analysis of this data showed that every signal that the telescopes captured and that scientists thought was a radio signal from an intelligent civilization present in the universe, was originally a signal of radio waves transmitted from the Earth.

With this disappointing result, we must take into account the means and methods used to analyze this data, which is an important breakthrough in the search for intelligent civilizations, and the potential technological fingerprints that exist in the universe. Scientists have concluded that the so-called "radio interference" is the real reason that hinders the search for intelligent civilizations in the universe. This radio interference has many forms, including, for example, navigation technology, satellites, mobile phone waves, microwaves, aircraft waves, and communications, whose frequency is beamed back into the universe.

Regrettably, these radio waves prevent the research for radio signals for intelligent civilizations outside Earth, Margot says. These waves make our task difficult, because we monitor tens of millions of signals in one hour of work, and it takes researchers a long time to analyze each signal and determine whether the signal is ground or external. Fortunately, the programs and methods we use automatically classify 99.8% of these signals.

Research limitations and attempts to reduce the observed signals

With great success, the research team added more improvements to the data analysis process, to try to quickly classify these signals, and judge them, are they technological fingerprints of external civilizations or not?

Using this method, 4,539 external signals remain confirmed, which scientists expect to be signals sent to us by intelligent civilizations outside our solar system. Now scientists are trying to track where the broadcasts came from.

On how to distinguish between the signals, Margot says: "If one signal is observed from different places in the sky, it is an earth signal, because the external signals are emitted from one place in the sky."

Astronomers confirm that they have picked up signals from other intelligent civilizations - the possibility of other intelligent civilizations sharing with us living in this vast universe - life outside Earth

In similar research, a group of scientists published earlier this year monitored about 10 million stars with potential intelligent civilizations in their range, but the result again was disappointing, as it was confirmed that there were no alien civilizations there.

Margot and his team are using the "Citi" project, the first of its kind in the world, which specializes in the search for intelligent life outside Earth, to train students of the University of California, since 2016, in the skills to search for intelligent life outside Earth.

This team's attempts to reduce the percentage of confirmed signals of the existence of intelligent civilizations revealed other attempts to analyze the City project data - which had previously been published by other researchers - more accurately. The results of Margot's team showed that the likelihood of intelligent civilizations was low compared to the observed signals.

Recommendations for future research and overcoming research obstacles

As with all the scientific research, the data analysis software Margot and his team used has some limitations. When two interfering signals are detected, the program selects only one of them, which has a higher noise-to-noise ratio and ignores the weak signal that is greater than the background noise ratio. This means that many of the high-intensity signals are ultimately shortened into a few signals.

By getting around this problem, the opportunities for future research into detecting smart signals may be magnified. It must be taken into account that the repeated radio waves that are transmitted from the Earth are not only a problem for researchers on the Seti project but rather a major research obstacle for all astronomers who work on monitoring radio waves from the Earth. This is why scientists are focusing on the far side of the moon to monitor external signals, as it avoids radio interference.

Margot and his team believe in the importance of this scientific research, Margot asserts, saying: "This research may answer one of the most mysterious scientific questions: Are we alone in this universe?"

life on Earth is linked to another previous life, and the discovery of a form of life on the surface of a planet may lead to a scientific and intellectual revolution in our understanding of the biological systems necessary for the emergence of biological life. This discovery will reframe our perception of our place in the universe in a more philosophical way.