Use the new frequency detector to listen to the universe to find life like the earth

Astronomers have proposed a new way of finding intelligent extraterrestrial life by using equipment like the one being installed in Australia.

The low frequency detection carpet (LFD) of the Mileura antenna network (MWA) ( MWA-LFD system for short) is located in western Australia as a specialized device for radio astronomy. In theory, this system could detect earth-like civilizations in the 1,000 closest stars to us.

According to theorist Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), 'sooner we can hear signals emitted from civilizations in the universe. This is the first time in history that humanity has been able to find a civilization like ours in the universe. '

Picture 1 of Use the new frequency detector to listen to the universe to find life like the earth

Antenna carpet of Mileura antenna network system.A telescope will use dozens of such antenna mats spread over a large area.(Photo: Frank Briggs)

Loeb will present his studies at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society that takes place in Seattle, Washington state on January 10.

Previous extraterrestrial search projects have not found any sign of an Earth-like civilization. Every search of these programs often focuses on the navigation signals emitted in the universe. But such signals do not exist. Furthermore, projects that seek extraterrestrial life by radio only check frequencies higher than 1 Gigahertz to avoid interference signals originating from the earth or the universe.

Instead of seeking intentionally generated signals, Loeb and his co-author Matias Zaldarriaga offered to look for signals of random leaks from a strange civilization . They show that the MWA-LFD system, which is designed to detect signals with frequencies between 80 and 30 Megahertz, will filter signals with the same frequency that are used by earth-like technologies. . On the left, military radar systems are the sources of the strongest radio signals, followed by radio waves and radio waves. If such analogue sources exist on other planets, the MWA-LFD system will detect them.

Zaldarriaga said 'MWA-LFD system is a specialized device for studying young galaxies and away from us. But by taking advantage of its normal observation features, researchers can use it to search for extraterrestrial civilizations'.

An out-of-land survival program with MWA-LFD can complement other extraterrestrial life-seeking projects. It can observe a larger sky area for a longer period of time and at different frequencies.

Loeb and Zaldarriaga calculated that by listening to the universe for a month, the MWA-LFD system could detect radio signals like the radio signal on the earth of about 1,000 stars 30 light year. Besides, it can detect strong sources at longer distances. In the future, the SKA project (an antenna project of 1 square kilometer) will be able to detect broadcast sources at distances 10 times longer and have about 100 million stars.

If the sources of the extraterrestrial civilization were invented, additional observations could identify the planet's properties that emitted such signals as the rotation of its axis as fast as how old or how old By combining that information with an understanding of the parent star, astronomers can calculate the surface temperature of the planet to assess whether there is water and life like us.

The MWA-LFD system is a radio telescope designed to detect and describe the extremely high emission of hydrogen molecules at the beginning of the universe. Its main purpose is to draw a three-dimensional map of ionized bubbles that formed the first quasars and galaxies billions of years ago.

The document describing the results of the experiment has been approved for publication in the journal Cosmology and Physical Molecular Physics. This document is available on the website: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0610377.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Physiology (CfA), headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard University Observatory.Scientists at the CfA center are divided into six areas of research aimed at studying the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.

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