Page 9 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October / November 2018

Scanning The Skies For Alien Intelligence 9

Why We Keep Scanning

The Skies For Signs Of

Alien Intelligence

The search for alien life continues,
but how near are we to finding life on
other planets – and will we ever
answer the question ‘are we alone’?

In less than an hour, the decision was made. It
was 2 December and Avi Loeb, an astronomy
professor at Harvard, was with Yuri Milner, the
Russian billionaire and founder of
Breakthrough Listen, a $100m alien-hunting
venture. Milner had invited Loeb, an adviser on
the project, to his Palo Alto home to discuss the
bizarre features of the interstellar object,
‘Oumuamua.
The first known visitor from another
solar system, the monolithic lump appeared
long and slender, a curious shape for a space
rock. The two agreed there was the slimmest Defense confirmed that from 2007 it ran a facility that is sensitive enough to detect the
chance ‘Oumuamua was not what it seemed. programme to investigate unidentified flying equivalent of TV broadcasts on planets around
Eleven days later, Breakthrough Listen swung object (UFO) sightings, but dropped funding Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth.
the world’s largest steerable telescope, at Green five years later in favour of more pressing Pope believes that it is searches like these that
Bank in West Virginia, into position and concerns. Luis Elizondo, the military will finally answer the question “are we alone?”
scanned the 400-metre-long body for signs that intelligence official who ran the Advanced Discoveries from land and space
it was a passing spacecraft. Aerospace Threat Identification Program, as the telescopes, and robotic planetary missions,
It was a long shot. After 10 hours of effort was named, resigned in October. He has strongly suggest that life should exist
observations the telescope, which can detect a since joined a private venture to continue his elsewhere. Water and organic molecules needed
mobile phone signal at twice the distance of the work in the field. for life as we know it are ubiquitous in space.
sun, found no evidence that ‘Oumuamua was Andrew Siemion, who leads the And from Nasa’s Kepler mission, astronomers
the work of an alien civilisation. By all Breakthrough Listen effort at the Berkeley now believe that almost every star in the galaxy
accounts, it is a dark, skyscraper-sized lump of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Research has at least one orbiting planet. “Everything
carbon, ice and dust that simply tumbled into Center in California, is sceptical that UFOs necessary for life to arise and thrive on this
our solar system from, well, somewhere have ever visited Earth. “Astronomers of all planet exists in abundance throughout the
beyond. But even as the search came up empty, types spend their lives looking up at the sky universe,” said Siemion.
it proved a point: the riskier, more audacious with every conceivable instrument we can The question, then, is where has life
hunts for life elsewhere are driven by private build, and we do so independently, and we have gained a foothold? “It should be on Europa, a
money, not governments and national space never taken a picture of a spaceship. And I can moon of Jupiter; it should be at the bottom of
agencies. tell you every single graduate student and Enceladus’s ocean, and it should be on Mars,”
Of all the methods brought to bear on postdoc would love nothing more than to be the said Grady. “If the processes that got life going
the question of life elsewhere, UFO sightings one to take that photo.” on Earth are universal, then some form of life
are at the farthest end of the credibility scale. No wonder, then, that governments should have got going.”
When Monica Grady oversaw Britain’s leave the more speculative searches for alien “The reason people are so incredibly
meteorite collection at the Natural History life to others. The programmes they do fund interested and excited is that it’s such a
Museum in London, she received plenty of tend to avoid all mention UFOs – the term has profound human question. We have a basic
letters about alien spacecraft over Britain. Most lost its intentional ambiguity since it was coined desire to know what is beyond, what is out
ended up in the bin, but one exemplified the in the 1950s and become synonymous with there,” said Siemion. “What we have done so
problem many scientists have with such reports. alien spacecraft. Instead, programmes far is very minimal. We have far more work to
It came from a man who had photographed what emphasise the potential threats posed by do.” []
he described as an alien vessel at the bottom of unexplained aerial objects that might be the
his garden. No-one else noticed it, he noted secretive work of hostile nations. When Nick The ‘X’ Zone TV
ruefully, but he was adamant the spacecraft was Pope worked on UFO sightings at the UK
responsible for road rage, cot death and Ministry of Defence in the 1990s, all mention of Channel
measles. “For me, it’s the difference between UFOs was scrubbed in favour of the more
astrology and astronomy,” said Grady, now fundable UAP, or Unidentified Aerial
professor of planetary science at the Open Phenomena. “The term UFO has a lot of pop
University. “We don’t have any credible culture baggage,” Pope told the Guardian. “It
sightings that are more likely to be an alien will never really lose its fringe tag.”
spacecraft than not.” While ufology struggles for credibility,
Few scientists would bet on finding the search for alien transmissions is serious
anything more exotic than extraterrestrial science. Much of the sky has been swept for
microbes, in our solar system at least. “We are alien signals in the form of optical, infrared and
not expecting to get to the bottom of radio waves. But the searches are far from
Enceladus’s ocean and find a whole load of extensive. Future scans could tune into directed
gnomes smelting metal,” said Grady, referring energy beams used to propel craft, x-ray and
to the tantalising subterranean water on the gamma-ray broadcasts, or even gravitational
moon of Saturn, which occasionally sends radiation. When the massive radio telescope Is NOW CH21 on SimulTV
geysers into space.It is not the only example. known as the Square Kilometre Array comes
Earlier this week, the US Department of online in 2020 or thereabouts, it will be the first www.SimulTV.com