In the Meerkat National Park in South Africa, we find the largest radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. Its name, the MeerKAT radio telescope, comes from its location. In this remote region of an African country, new efforts to search for extraterrestrial life begin. This greatly increases the number of targets investigators can watch at the same time.

Breakthrough Listen, the largest scientific group dedicated to the search for civilizations beyond our planet, ensures that this change This will allow them to multiply by a thousand the number of targets at the same time.increasing the chances of finding extraterrestrial life.

Now, after three years of collaboration between Listen and MeerKAT, the tool is ready to be searched. It has already been described as the most powerful equipment ever used to help find process signals in space. Said device is paired with a radio telescope, controlled and monitored through MeerKAT systems to search for extraterrestrial life.

Listen intensifies search for extraterrestrial life around the globe

In addition to the radio telescope, MeerKAT Listen also relies on other teams around the world. Among them, we have the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the Parkes Telescope in Australia, and others looking for technology signals. Nonetheless, MeerKAT represents a significant improvement in the search for these extraterrestrial signals..

The reason is that MeerKAT does not need to move antennas to explore space. You can use 64 plates at the same time to control an area 50 times larger. than the one that can be observed by the Green Bank Telescope at the same time.

“Such a large field of view usually contains many stars, which are interesting targets for technosignatures,” says Listen principal investigator Dr. Andrew Simion. “Our supercomputer allows us to combine the signals from all 64 dishes to obtain high-resolution scans of these targets. with excellent sensitivityand all this does not affect the research of other astronomers using the array.”

This last statement is even more encouraging. If the new alien life search technology can last longer without interfering with other research, opportunities for positive outcomes increase exponentially.

Promising future

According to Dr. Cherry Ng, a scientist at the Listen project, “It would take us only two years to search over a million nearby stars.” Thus, MeerKAT “will give us the ability to detect a transmitter similar to the brightest beacons on Earth.” Possibility to cover up to 250 light years away in normal monitoring mode.

This, combined with the efforts of other agencies such as SETI and METI, may allow us to find extraterrestrial life sooner than we expected. Actually, scientists are already preparing so that humanity now learns to talk to aliens.

Source: Hiper Textual

Previous articleScientists try to observe the 2nd largest black hole near Earth
Next articleRecycled frying oil from Vkusno, and that’s what will heat Moscow’s electric buses

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here