Scientists are focusing on listening for signals in the central region of the Milky Way. Here there are dense stars and exoplanets capable of harboring life.

Could intelligent aliens be lurking at the center of the Milky Way?

We are always searching for extraterrestrial life by listening for radio pulses from the center of our galaxy. Narrow-frequency pulses are emitted naturally from stars called pulsars, but these pulses are also used by humans in technology such as radar.

A hypothetical alien ship transmitting radio signals into space. These are the signals that scientists are hunting for. (Photo: Breakthrough Listen/Danielle Futselaar).

These pulses stand out against the radio noise of space, so they are an effective way to communicate over great distances, and an attractive target to keep our ears open as we search for extraterrestrial civilizations. planet. planet.

In a new study just published on May 30, researchers presented a strategy for hunting aliens. PhD student Akshay Suresh at Cornell University, New York, USA, is the leader of the research team.

His team developed software to detect these repeating frequency patterns and tested it again on known pulsars to confirm that the software can capture narrow frequencies. These frequency bands are very small, only 1/10 the width of the frequencies used by FM radio stations.

The team then used this method to search for data from the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia.

Up to now, the SETI radio (of the SETI Institute – a non-profit organization in the US specializing in finding life in outer space) mainly searches for continuously transmitted signals.

Source: Illustrative internet photo

This new research sheds light on the remarkable energy efficiency of a pulse train as a means of interstellar communication. This is also the first comprehensive in-depth study of signals emitted from the center of the galaxy.

Scientists are focusing on listening for signals in this central region because there are dense stars and exoplanets that are capable of harboring life.

Furthermore, if the aliens in the galactic core wanted to reach the rest of the galaxy, they could send scanning signals across a series of planets thanks to their advantageous position at the center of the galaxy. river.

Researchers say using narrow bandwidth and repetitive broadcasts would be the main method for aliens to demonstrate their existence, because of the combination of both factors. unlikely to have occurred by random coincidence.

The research method uses an algorithm that can search through 1.5 million samples of telescope data in 30 minutes. Although the researchers did not find any telltale signs in the first search, they said the speed of the algorithm will help improve the efficiency of future searches.

This research project has collected a huge amount of data and the technique that the research team developed has brought a new method in the hope that “the needle in the bag will come out after a long time” and we will find astonishing evidence of advanced forms of extraterrestrial life.