One of the world’s largest studies searches for signs of extraterrestrials

The Breakthrough Listen project, a privately funded search for evidence of ex̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ intelligence, has begun work on the MeerKAT radio telescope array in South Africa.

Over the next two years, the team will search for more than a million nearby stars, increasing the number of targets observed by a factor of 1,000.

“I am delighted to be able to search for technosignals with one of the most sensitive telescopes in the world,” says Dr. Cherry Ng, Breakthrough Listen project scientist. “MeerKAT will give us the ability to detect a transmitter similar to the brightest beacons on Earth at a distance of 250 light-years.”

There are about 260,000 stars in this range. For more distant stars, the search becomes more difficult, but there is still a chance of finding signals from distant sources.

The Search for E̳x̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ Intelligence (SETI) is in the unenviable position of rarely receiving government funding for research. NASA has largely avoided SETI research since a planned high-resolution microwave survey was canceled in 1993.

SETI\’s connection to conspiracy theories sometimes overshadows its ability to answer one of the most important questions humanity can ask: Are we alone in the universe?

Breakthrough Listen works with the Green Bank Telescope in the US and the Parkes Telescope in Australia, among others. MeerKAT is the latest addition.

The 64-dish MeerKAT array can view an area of ​​sky 50 times larger than the Green Bank Telescope, making it an exceptional tool for capturing wide swaths of nearby galactic neighborhoods.

Importantly, MeerKAT\’s Breakthrough Listen softw̳a̳r̳e allows them to work in “collaborative mode,” which means they connect to a telescope and can search for technosignals without interfering with other astronomers\’ observations.

“Such a large field of view typically contains many stars, which are interesting technosignal objects,” says Breakthrough Listen Principal Investigator Dr. Andrew Simion.

“Our new supercomputer allows us to combine the signals from 64 dishes to obtain high-resolution, high-sensitivity images of these targets without interfering with other astronomers using the array.”

One of the first targets that Breakthrough Listen will observe with MeerKAT is Proxima Centauri, the closest star with two known rocky planets in the habitable zone.

So far, there are no signs of an ex̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ c̳i̳v̳i̳l̳i̳z̳a̳t̳i̳o̳n̳. Astronomers have conflicting opinions on whether there are technological c̳i̳v̳i̳l̳i̳z̳a̳t̳i̳o̳n̳s to look for. Some astronomers suggest that if they were there, we would have seen them by now.

This is the premise of the Fermi Paradox, which suggests that life is probably common elsewhere in the universe, so it\’s strange that we haven\’t seen it yet.

Breakthrough Listen\’s premise is that if we don\’t look, we won\’t get an answer. MeerKAT\’s powerful capabilities will make this quest more complete. Only time will tell if they find it or not.