The Radio Signal From Proxima Centauri Came From Earth After All – Universe Today
[ad_1]
Turns out we were hearing ourselves! Earth can be a noisy place when listening to stars.
Late last year, a story was leaked indicating that the Murriyang radio telescope in Australia had detected a “signal-of-interest”. Dubbed “blc1” (Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1), the signal appeared to originate from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest neighbouring star to the Sun. The signal had yet to be fully analyzed when the story was leaked. Now that the analysis is complete, research shows blc1 is in fact “RFI” – radio frequency interference – and not an interstellar signal.
But while it’s not aliens – or “Proxima Centaurians” as lead author on the signal analysis Dr. Sofia Sheikh whimsically refers to them – new methodologies for conducting radio-based SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) have been developed by analyzing blc1; further honing our ability to distinguish future potential ET signals from our own planet.
A Needle in a Hay Stack
From April 29th to May 4th of 2019, the Murriyang telescope targeted ProxCen (Proxima Centauri) to monitor solar flare activity. ProxCen is a red dwarf star located 4.2 light years from Earth. Red dwarfs, are known for their massive solar flares but given that they dominate the stellar population of our galaxy, we want to know how these flares may affect the ability of red dwarfs to harbour life. Mega flares could tear the atmosphere off a planet! ProxCen has demonstrated mega flare activity but also contains at least one rocky planet in the star’s “habitable zone” where it’s warm enough to allow for liquid water.
Murriyang’s scan of ProxCen is intense – 800 million radio frequencies monitored simultaneously spanning the 700Mhz to 4Ghz range. 20TB of information is collected in a matter of days. In addition to flares, Berkeley undergraduate student Shane Smith working with Breakthrough Listen, currently the world’s largest SETI project, used software called turboSETI to scan for signs of alien technology. The software filters signals with certain patterns that may indicate something of interest. After filtering 4 MILLION detection “hits”, one very peculiar signal remained warranting further scrutiny.
Smith, found a signal at 982.002571 Mhz, – possibly the SETI winning numbers. Why did this one stand out from the millions of others? Some can be removed straight away as Earth-based signals such as cell-phones and internet transmissions at known frequencies. Another tell is whether the signal still appears when the telescope is pointed “off-source”. At a regular cadence, the scope was pointed away from ProxCen to other calibration sources. If the signal remains when the telescope is moved away from the target, the source of the signal is more likely from Earth and not from the target.
The signals are then checked for “drift.” Drift is the change in a signal’s frequency over time. The hope is that this change in frequency is caused by the source of the signal moving relative to Earth – for example because it is orbiting around a distant star. Its motion creates a Doppler effect similar to the change in pitch of a passing ambulance. After all this filtering. One signal remained – a signal also so narrow in frequency, it couldn’t be created by any known natural phenomenon. A candidate! Blc1! *Cue X-Files whistle.*
Who Said That?
“For me, it’s the enormity of the challenge that draws me to SETI as a research field. In addition, because there’s so much research still to do in SETI, it allows me to be creative in my work and juggle multiple projects at a time, which I really enjoy!”
-Dr. Sofia Sheikh
But is blc1 Proxima Centaurians!? Dr. Sofia Sheikh, lead writer on the recently published signal analysis, wanted to find out.
As a unique discovery, blc1 required new methodology for testing which was developed by Sheikh and her team. The first tests rule out the most local of possibilities – the Murriyang facility itself. Diagnostics of the telescope on the days of recording were analyzed. The team also verified the scope didn’t simply detect local RFI from the surrounding complex. For example, was blc1 seen only when the telescope dish was pointed at a building coinciding with ProxCen’s direction? Reobservations of ProxCen were also made which yielded no signal.
Deeper analysis sought to explain blc1’s drift rate. The signal could still be from Earth but in motion relative to the telescope- originating from a car, airplane, or satellite. However, none of these possibilities accounted for the measured drift over the duration the signal was detected. Deep space objects like probes were not in the direction of ProxCen during the detections. But neither did the drift match what would be expected if the signal were moving relative to Earth within the ProxCen system itself.
So what else could cause the drift if not a moving object? Drift can also be created by an electronic device designed to change frequency like tuning a knob on a dial. To the telescope, such a device may appear to be moving even while fixed to the Earth’s surface.
As a final step in the analysis, the team revisited the data to see if other signals similar to blc1 could be found. 60 signals, across a range of frequencies and all with incredibly similar drift to blc1, were discovered in the data. Each signal appeared to the telescope at the same time as blc1. Why were these signals initially filtered out? Because they appeared off-target and so were determined to be RFI. Blc1’s similarity to these other signals indicates it is most likely one of a set of signals that are all RFI. And, as a result of the way these signals mixed and interacted, blc1 appeared localized in space toward ProxCen even though it wasn’t. Furthermore, the spacing in frequency between the signals is in multiples of 2Mhz, a common spacing created by known Earth-technology – a clock oscillator. So, because blc1 so closely matches this set of signals, and the set can be identified as RFI, blc1 itself can also be ruled out as RFI. No calls from ET…(yet).
Listening to the Future
“As Freeman Dyson once said “Every search for alien civilizations should be planned to give interesting results even when no aliens are discovered.” Our “interesting results” are often cutting-edge astronomy in their own right!”
-Dr. Sofia Sheikh
The actual source of blc1, and its companion set of RFI, has yet to be determined. While not aliens, working to verify the signal helps us better detect aliens in the future. No signal has ever been ruled out as RFI by comparing it to other RFI before. That’s because no signal like blc1 had ever been seen before! This whole process was the result of the most sensitive search of ET radio signals ever conducted on a single target star. The results also demonstrate that software tools like turboSETI were doing their job. The software detected that 1 in 4 million signal that MIGHT be extraterrestrial triggering the flurry of analysis.
Breakthrough Listen is expanding operation to include MeerKAT, a telescope array in South Africa that can observe targets with Murriyang simultaneously. The advantage of simultaneous observation is that a true interstellar signal will show up in both telescopes while RFI would be unique to one – a technique used by some past SETI initiatives such as Project Phoenix.
Ultimately, a civilization or other life on Proxima b could still be possible. Given the system’s proximity to Earth, it remains a target of interest for future observation. We could also just GO to Proxima Centauri to find out! Another component of the Breakthrough initiative is Breakthrough Starshot, a future mission to send a miniature probe all the way to our neighbouring star. Attach that probe to a massive solar sail accelerated by a few gigawatts of laser power and you have a craft headed to ProxCen at 20% the speed of light – thousands of times faster than our current probes. It would arrive in just 20 years – interstellar flight within a human lifetime!
Until then, we keep listening to the stars.
“It would be very, very cool if life, technology, and even intelligence were features of our galaxy more broadly, and not just confined to our “pale blue dot” of Earth. But we’ll just have to see what the data holds in the future!”
– Dr. Sofia Sheikh
Feature Image: The three telescopes at CSIRO’s Murriyang Observatory. The primary dish is 64 meters wide and one of the largest moving dishes in the world. Credit: Red Empire Media/CSIRO.
Big thanks to Dr. Sofia Sheikh for contributing comments to this piece!
More to Explore
Breakthrough Initiatives Press Release
BLC1 – Breakthrough Listen’s First “Signal of Interest” (berkeley.edu) Press Summary
BLC1 – Breakthrough Listen’s first “Signal of Interest” – YouTube
Dr. Sofia Sheikh on Twitter (@SETI_Sheikh)
A radio technosignature search towards Proxima Centauri resulting in a signal-of-interest (Open Access Research Paper led by Shane Smith)
Analysis of the Breakthrough Listen signal of interest blc1 with a technosignature verification framework (Open Access Research Paper led by Dr. Sofia Z. Sheikh)
Day 1: Breakthrough Discuss 2021: Alpha Centauri System: A Beckoning Neighbor – YouTube Interview video with Dr. Sofia Sheikh hosted by Berkeley SETI Research Center
A Very Interesting Radio Signal was Just Detected Coming from Proxima Centauri – Universe Today
Project Phoenix | SETI Institute
Murriyang: Parkes radio telescope receives Indigenous name – CSIROscope
[ad_2]
Original Post
Very nice style and design and wonderful content material, nothing else we need : D.
I used to be suggested this website by way of my cousin. I am no longer sure whether this submit is written through him as no one else recognize such specified approximately my difficulty. You are wonderful! Thanks!
But wanna remark on few general things, The website style and design is perfect, the subject material is very fantastic : D.
Thanks for helping out, excellent info .
As soon as I found this web site I went on reddit to share some of the love with them.
Great line up. We will be linking to this great article on our site. Keep up the good writing.
Simply desire to say your article is as astounding. The clearness in your post is simply excellent and i can assume you’re an expert on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the rewarding work.
This is really interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your great post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks!
I as well as my friends were actually studying the good pointers found on your web page and then then got an awful suspicion I had not expressed respect to the site owner for them. Those guys came for this reason warmed to read through them and already have sincerely been having fun with them. I appreciate you for being very helpful as well as for having certain superior tips millions of individuals are really desperate to be informed on. Our honest apologies for not saying thanks to you sooner.
It’s laborious to find educated people on this subject, however you sound like you know what you’re speaking about! Thanks
Keep working ,impressive job!
I’ve learn several just right stuff here. Definitely value bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how a lot attempt you set to make such a magnificent informative site.
I truly wanted to jot down a quick word in order to say thanks to you for these amazing tips and tricks you are posting at this site. My extensive internet investigation has finally been paid with excellent strategies to exchange with my guests. I would assume that most of us website visitors actually are very much blessed to be in a perfect website with many marvellous individuals with good tactics. I feel truly happy to have used your entire webpages and look forward to really more fun times reading here. Thanks a lot once again for a lot of things.
I absolutely love your blog and find nearly all of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for. can you offer guest writers to write content available for you? I wouldn’t mind publishing a post or elaborating on a few of the subjects you write concerning here. Again, awesome web log!
Most of the things you articulate happens to be supprisingly appropriate and that makes me wonder the reason why I had not looked at this in this light before. This article truly did turn the light on for me as far as this subject matter goes. Nevertheless at this time there is one particular factor I am not really too comfy with so while I try to reconcile that with the actual main theme of your position, allow me observe what all the rest of the readers have to say.Well done.
Merely wanna comment on few general things, The website layout is perfect, the content is very great : D.
I’ve been browsing online more than 3 hours as of late, yet I never discovered any fascinating article like yours. It is pretty worth sufficient for me. In my view, if all website owners and bloggers made good content material as you did, the web will probably be a lot more helpful than ever before.
you’ve gotten an incredible weblog here! would you prefer to make some invite posts on my blog?
I am often to blogging and i really appreciate your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and keep checking for new information.
Hi there! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My blog looks weird when viewing from my iphone 4. I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to resolve this problem. If you have any recommendations, please share. With thanks!
Greetings! Very helpful advice on this article! It is the little changes that make the biggest changes. Thanks a lot for sharing!
Can I just say what a reduction to seek out someone who truly is aware of what theyre speaking about on the internet. You positively know how you can carry a problem to mild and make it important. More individuals must read this and understand this aspect of the story. I cant consider youre not more widespread since you definitely have the gift.
Very interesting info!Perfect just what I was searching for!
Hmm is anyone else having problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I discovered your blog site on google and check a few of your early posts. Continue to keep up the very good operate. I just additional up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking forward to reading more from you later on!…
What is Alpha Tonic? Alpha Tonic stands as a natural health supplement designed to comprehensively address men’s overall well-being.
Thanks, I’ve recently been searching for information about this subject for a long time and yours is the greatest I’ve discovered till now. However, what about the conclusion? Are you positive concerning the supply?
Please let me know if you’re looking for a article writer for your weblog. You have some really great articles and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d love to write some content for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an e-mail if interested. Thank you!
This actually answered my downside, thank you!
Does your blog have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but, I’d like to send you an email. I’ve got some ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great blog and I look forward to seeing it expand over time.
You could certainly see your expertise within the paintings you write. The arena hopes for more passionate writers like you who are not afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart. “Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was.” by Margaret Mitchell.
I cherished up to you will obtain performed proper here. The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish. nonetheless, you command get got an edginess over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly once more as exactly the similar just about a lot incessantly within case you shield this increase.
I will right away grasp your rss feed as I can’t in finding your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please allow me recognise in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.
Hey very nice site!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your website and take the feeds also…I am happy to find so many useful information here in the post, we need develop more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
I am often to blogging and i really appreciate your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and keep checking for new information.
You actually make it appear so easy along with your presentation however I in finding this matter to be really something which I believe I’d by no means understand. It sort of feels too complicated and extremely huge for me. I am having a look forward for your subsequent put up, I will try to get the hang of it!
Lottery Defeater Software is a digital tool designed to assist individuals in improving their chances of winning in various lotteries.