SETI Goes Beyond Milky Way Galaxy For Alien Life
Researchers at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) have been looking at the Milky Way for signs of life so far. In a new project, scientists have taken their quest to intergalactic proportions. Looking for life in more distant parts of the universe uses different methods than those traditionally employed while searching our own galaxy.
Finding Life In New Ways
The accepted way to search for intelligent life has long been to monitor the Milky Way for communications signals that are alien in origin. SETI scans the galaxy for patterns that represent an intentional signal. But the intergalactic way to find alien life can’t rely on radio waves, as they would be too distorted to be useful by the time our instruments could detect them.
Instead, C. D. Tremblay and S. J. Tingay, who conducted a recent study on intergalactic signs of intelligent life, looked for evidence that a civilization had significantly affected its environment.
Looking For Energy Use
The common understanding of a distant intelligent species often involves interstellar spacecraft and communications, but the new SETI study concentrates on energy use as a signifier of civilization.
Intergalactic signals that might be detectable to us on Earth are ones created by energy-consuming technology, but until now, searching for these patterns hasn’t been the norm.
The first extragalactic low-frequency signature search was conducted using equipment designed to detect what researchers refer to as technosignatures, or patterns caused by a large-scale civilization using energy and technology.
Not Enough Data
Since not much focus has been put on low-frequency scans, SETI and others have yet to discover intergalactic signs of intelligent life.
Tremblay argues that this lack of discovery isn’t necessarily due to the lack of alien civilization but rather to a lack of data on a distant scale. The search for other civilizations has been limited to our own galaxy, largely because of the type of signal being sought.
However, using a different metric for discovery could allow us to look farther beyond our own galactic neighborhood.
Too Much Sky
One of the obstacles to any type of astrological exploration is that the amount of sky that can be searched at one time is very limited.
Even when collaboration allows SETI to use multiple pieces of equipment, the vastness of intergalactic space is a barrier to a thorough analysis.
The idea that in the infinite expanse of space, the probability is that there is other intelligent life is enough of a motivation for some astrophysicists to keep looking.
No Alien Civilizations Found
Unsurprisingly to many, the new method for finding intelligent life hasn’t uncovered any alien civilizations. Seeing as how this method is new, and yields a limited amount of results for such a large amount of space, the new SETI intergalactic search model will need some more practice before it is deemed a failure.
According to Tremblay and Tingay, the limited scope of this first-of-its-kind venture shouldn’t dissuade future work on the subject but instead can be used as a basis for further study.
Even More Searches Underway
As a follow-up to the study conducted at SETI, the intergalactic search for civilization will begin at the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in Europe soon.
The new experiment will be specifically designed to find intelligent life rather than interpret data from a galactic survey, allowing a more advanced search to take place.
The new search method will contribute to the study of extraterrestrial signals, making the point that if we don’t look for intelligent life, we will surely never find it.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
