What can radio signals reveal about the existence of aliens?

What science sought for the first time Occurred by alien civilizations via radio signals in 1960, by an experiment led by astronomer Frank Drake. Called Project Ozma, Drake’s goal was to look for evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth using the radio telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United States.

The name Ozma was chosen as an homage to the character of the same name in the Wizard of Oz book series. In the project, scientists looked for radio frequencies that may have been emitted by intelligent civilizations in other parts of the universe, with a special focus on the 1,420 MHz frequency.

For example, they focused on stars similar to the Sun, such as Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, because of the possibility that these stars could harbor planetary systems. For Drake, If there are other civilizations in the universe, they probably use radio waves to communicate with other space colonies.

Since then, the search for alien life has increased significantly; In recent years, the topic has gained great attention within the scientific community and governments around the world. In fact, North American politicians have already held formal conventions to discuss the issue in the US Congress.

Ozma is considered the official start of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program, famous for searching for signals from aliens on distant radio frequencies.

“Projects to search for such signals are known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The first modern SETI experiment was Project Ozma, conducted by American astronomer Frank Drake in 1960. Drake used a radio telescope (essentially a large scale) to detect signals from nearby Sun-like stars. antenna),” explains the encyclopedia Britannica.

SETI, radio signals and aliens

SETI researchers have devoted their lives to analyzing radio frequency data from the universe that could prove intelligent life beyond Earth. Founded by Tom Pierson and astronomer Jill Tarter, the SETI Institute officially began operations in February 1985.

Although the institute was formalized in 1985, The concept of SETI began with Frank Drake’s research such as the Drake Equation.. Formulated in 1961, the equation aims to estimate the number of civilizations in the Milky Way with advanced technologies that can communicate via radio.

Much of the program’s time was devoted to mining data collected by the Arecibo Radio Telescope, but they also used signals captured by other terrestrial radio telescopes—Arecibo’s operations ended in 2020. In Portuguese, SETI means ‘Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence’.

In a study published in the preprint journal arXiv, a group of scientists from SETI and Pennsylvania State University in the US announced that they used the ground-based radio telescope Allen Telescope Array (ATA) to search for signs of life in the TRAPPIST-1 system. .

The region is located outside the Solar System and hosts three planets that could offer conditions for the existence of water in the Habitable Zone.

They scanned radio signals for 28 hours looking for any evidence of extraterrestrial technology of some kind. Finally, Researchers announced that they could not find any definitive signs indicating the existence of an alien civilization.but they believe the data could be used to refine future searches.

“This research shows that we are getting closer to detecting radio signals similar to the radio signals we send into space,” said study author and Penn State University researcher Nick Tusay.

The most famous detection is known as the WOW Signal, a sequence of signals captured in 1977 with frequency characteristics that may have been emitted by an extraterrestrial civilization. Unfortunately, to date, researchers have not been able to solve the mystery of the origin of the WOW Signal.

Are radio signals efficient?

For many scientists and radio enthusiasts, investigating radio signals may be obsolete; They believe that radio frequency is outdated technology for a supposed extraterrestrial civilization capable of traveling to other parts of space.

According to these critics, It is likely that these beings use another type of more advanced technology to communicate. In other words, they think it’s unlikely that aliens would use such outdated technology to achieve any kind of communication.

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