“Technosignatures” to be used by NASA in the search for alien life
New tools are being used by NASA in order to detect “technosignatures” that could come from technologically advanced civilizations. These are signals that can travel to us from the universe and the best such example would be the radio signals. However, according to NASA, there are many signals that were not yet explored by scientists.
What is NASA looking for?
The space agency has mentioned that if they capture any radio or laser emissions, or if they will get some evidence of “an atmosphere full of pollutants”, this could mean that they have found intelligent extraterrestrial life.
What kind of tools were used for this?
NASA has various tools that they can use to search for exoplanets – one of them being the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, also known as TESS. We already had some news at the beginning of this month about the first images from TESS being released by the company. In the first set of pictures we can see the Large Magellanic Cloud, as well as the bright star R Doradus, together with many other stars and planets, which could be the hosts of alien life.
Could there be any life out there in the universe?
Apparently, there have been some fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected recently, which seem to emanate from deep space. At the moment, there is no explanation as to what is the cause of these unusual radio signals that travel from a distance of 3 billion light years away from our planet. These detections were possible due to an artificial intelligence program at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). For now, we do not know what are the chances of actually finding evidence of an advanced civilization. However, it is worth giving it a try. NASA will surely keep on searching.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
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