"Even though this was a really big study, the amount of space we looked at was the equivalent of trying to find something in the Earth’s oceans but only searching a volume of water equivalent to a large backyard swimming pool."
A study has observed 10 million star systems in the universe and found no traces of advanced aliens. But this doesn’t mean Aliens are not real.
A recent study has struck a blow in our hopes of discovering alien civilizations in the universe.
An Australian telescope has searched the cosmos for traces of advanced alien civilizations—after looking for technological signatures—in 10 million star systems, coming up empty-handed, not finding any evidence that anyone is out there.
The radio telescope in outback Western Australia has recently completed what astronomers say is the most in-depth and broadest search at low frequencies for alien tech.
Astronomers pointed the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope at a patch of the night sky home to as many as 10 million star systems. This particular telescope has a huge wide field of view that enables scientists to look at a greater area of the sky, allowing them to observe millions of stars at once.
In particular, researchers were looking at radio emission at frequencies like FM radio frequencies. These, astronomers say, if found, could be indicators that a particular star system is a home to an alien civilization that has “advanced” technology.
To the disappointment of many people, the search has come up empty-handed, leading many to believe we might be alone in the universe after all.
“We observed the sky around the constellation of Vela for 17 hours, looking more than 100 times broader and deeper than ever before, explained CSIRO astronomer Dr. Chenoa Tremblay. “With this dataset, we found no technosignatures—no sign of intelligent life.”
Although they didn’t find ET listening to rock music, it doesn’t mean the 10 million stars are barren, uninhabited, and that life didn’t develop there.
For starters, astronomers could have just missed out on a particular technosignature.
Furthermore, since we can’t possibly imagine what alien technology looks like or how it may even be used, we really can’t conclude that just because we didn’t spot something “familiar” to our technology, that there isn’t anything technologically advanced out there.
In other words, for us to really delve into the idea of alien tech, we need to learn to search for potential traces of technosignatures in different ways, at different times, and with different technology.
This idea is acknowledged by the very scientists that participated in the study; “even though this was a massive study, the amount of space we looked at was the equivalent of trying to find something in the Earth’s oceans but only searching a volume of water equivalent to a large backyard swimming pool.”
Not long ago, astronomers from the Breakthrough Listen Initiative published the so-called Exotica Catalog — listing each type of astronomical object where technologically advanced alien civilizations might be hiding. So if we want to look for alien civilizations, the catalog offers a plethora of places where we can search.
Keep in mind that the universe, as we know it, is a pretty massive place. According to Sky and Telescope, there could be as many as 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. In addition to that, it would be a pretty good idea to update our estimates of stats in the observable universe, which now numbers at around 700 sextillions. So can you even imagine the number of potential exoplanets—life-bearing exoplanets—out there?
As you can see, the universe is a massive place, and our technology is very limited in exploring its proper size. If we can’t even define just how big the universe is and how many galaxies and stars exist out there, how can we say we are likely alone and that aliens are no more than science fiction?
Search on.
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