Alien Life Search — SETI Released Over 2 Petabytes Of Data

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science released for the second time data from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The nearly 2 petabytes of data are twice as big as the first release that occurred last June. Civilians are invited to join forces with the scientists and investigators and search the material for sings that could lead to finding intelligent alien life or, at the least, undiscovered natural astronomical phenomena.

The data comes from a survey of the radio spectrum between 1 and 12 gigahertz. Half of it is from the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia. The most exciting part is that most of the data weren’t studied in detail by the astronomers.

Another part of the common joint is that the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the privately-funded SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, agreed to collaborate. SETI will build equipment to help the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico.

SETI Released Over 2 Petabytes Of Data on Their Alien Life Search

The goal is to overcome the state of speculation over the “are we alone?” question, and bring real proof. This step might not take us there yet. But it might become a step forward for future research.

Assuming that other species from other planets are using similar technology to ours, Breakthrough Listen principal investigator Andrew Siemion says that the new analysis will be made on the radio emissions of twenty nearby stars. Hoping that observers from those stars could eventually see the Earth orbiting the Sun and beacon towards us, from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. A lot of assumptions, but maybe they are the lucky strike.

“We didn’t find any alien life, but we are setting very rigorous limits on the presence of a technologically capable species, with data for the first time in the part of the radio spectrum between 4 and 8 gigahertz. These results put another rung on the ladder for the next person who comes along and wants to improve on the experiment,” said Andrew Siemion.

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