For decades, humanity has been looking for evidence of extraterrestrial technology. And it hasn’t happened yet.
The most extensive and in-depth analysis done so far is looking for evidence of the existence of alien technology. Astronomers used the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope, located in Australia, to explore a piece of the Universe known to include at least 10 million stars, but to no avail.
The research, which lasted 17 hours, was done around the constellation of Vela, chosen because it has the ideal conditions for the formation of new stars, taking advantage of the 4,096 MWA antennas to try to find radio signals emitted by some extraterrestrial civilization.
According to the results of the study, publicly released , the telescope searched for radio emissions, at frequencies similar to FM radio frequencies, that could indicate the presence of technology. These possible emissions are known as techno signatures, but have not been detected.
Although this was the most extensive and in-depth analysis yet, the scientific community was not surprised by the result.
“As Douglas Adams said in ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’, Space is big, really big,” says Steven Tingay, one of those responsible for the study. “And even though this was a very broad analysis, the amount of space we observed was the equivalent of trying to find something in the Earth’s oceans, but looking only at a volume of water equivalent to a home pool”, he adds in the note released to press .
Since it is not possible to guess how alien civilizations – if any – use technology, it is necessary to research in many different ways, argues the researcher. “Using radio telescopes, we can explore a given area in eight dimensions”.
Although there is a long way to go in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, Steven Tingay believes that telescopes like the MWA will be able to overcome their limits so the intention is to “keep looking”.
