On April 8, 1960, astronomer Frank Drake launched a new era in the search for extraterrestrial
civilizations.
He sought the first direct evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence by pointing the 85-foot telescope
of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, toward
two Sun-like stars in the galactic neighborhood.
Tuning to a frequency of 1420 megahertz, he hoped to find a universal meeting spot.
This frequency is also known by scientists on other worlds as the emission frequency
of hydrogen, the universe's most abundant element.
Although Drake's Project Ozma experiment did not prove the existence of life beyond Earth,
it did stimulate the establishment of a new discipline of science: the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence (SETI).
Since that first experiment, which could only listen in on one frequency at a time, the
strength and scope of SETI searches have grown considerably.
So, in this video, we'll look at some recent discoveries that have shocked everyone!
The Wow!
Signal
An astronomer believes he has found the source of a mysterious radio signal from space: a
passing comet that no one was aware of.
However, his colleagues remain doubtful of the theory, pointing out that comets do not
generate radio waves in the expected manner.
Antonio Paris, an astronomer at St. Petersburg College in Florida, recently published a paper
in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences claiming that the mysterious "Wow!
signal," a truly bizarre radio signal detected nearly 40 years ago, appears to match the
location of a comet called 266P/Christensen that hadn't been catalogued at the time.
(The comet was spotted much later, in 2006.)
Initially, Paris hypothesized that a second comet, P/2008 Y Gibbs, could potentially be
the culprit.
The Wow!
signal has been explained by anything from natural occurrences to covert spy satellites
to, well, aliens.
Others are skeptical.
"We do not believe the two-comets theory can explain the Wow!
signal," signal, according to Jerry Ehman, the astronomer who found it in 1977.
The Wow!
signal got its name from how unusual and stunning it was.
The radio signal first occurred on the night of August 15, 1977, when it was picked up
by The Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope.
It was only 72 seconds long.
It was "loud" more intense than everything else in the sky that night.
It was likewise a signal with a restricted bandwidth; the frequency range it spanned
was modest, similar to that of artificial signals.
Channels on AM radio, for example, are only 10,000 cycles above or below the prescribed
frequency on the dial.
Furthermore, the signal had a frequency of around 1,420 megahertz (MHz), also known as
the 21-centimeter line.
That frequency corresponds to radio waves released by neutral hydrogen gas in space.
It's a relatively noise-free region that academics looking for extraterrestrial intelligence
have been interested in for a long time since it could be utilized for interplanetary transmissions.
The signal did not return, and additional attempts to locate it were futile.
On a printout of the numbers reflecting the signal, Ehman scribbled "Wow!" in red pen.
The now-dismantled Big Ear telescope was seeking for alien signals in 1977, as part of an early
iteration of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI.
Nobody anticipated to hear anything like the Wow!
signal, and the Big Ear telescope never heard anything like it again.
It was hard to tell what it was without a repeat signal, and determining an exact position
was difficult due to the signal's brief duration.
Ehman stated in a statement that it is difficult to detect how far away a radio signal is originating
from after a certain distance.
Several astronomers, including Ehman, believe Paris is mistaken about the comet.
Ehman examined Paris' findings with Robert Dixon, director of The Ohio State University's
radio observatory.
The signal did not reoccur, and it only occurred for a brief period of time.
The Big Ear telescope, according to Ehman, has two "feed horns," each of which gives
a slightly different field of view for a radio telescope.
"We should have seen the source come through twice in about 3 minutes: one response lasting
72 seconds and a second response for 72 seconds following within about a minute and a half,"
Ehman added.
"We didn't see the second one."
He said that the only way that could happen is if the transmission was abruptly shut off.
A comet would not emit such a signal since the gases that surround it cover enormous,
diffuse areas.
The comet would not have escaped the radio telescope's range of vision that quickly.
Ehman, on the other hand, isn't persuaded its aliens.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are unexplained radio bursts with fiercely discussed astrophysical
origins that emit irregular signals that last only milliseconds, are one of several occurrences
that indicate unexpected appearances and disappearances of radio signals.
Ehman theorized that if the Big Ear only picked up the tail end of such an emission, the data
could resemble the Wow!
signal.
"The issue with the feed horns is something no one can explain, including me," Paris remarked.
"There is some data out there to suggest the issue is at the telescope end and not the
phenomenon itself."
As a result, it's probable that the signal was created by a bug in the Big Ear telescope.
The frequency of the transmission also presents another problem.
Paris claims to have demonstrated that comets can emit in that frequency range, but SETI
Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak is doubtful.
Shostak used to investigate neutral hydrogen emissions in the 1,420-MHz band and is less
certain the emission would be correct.
Comets might not produce enough hydrogen to provide a bright enough signal like Wow!
"I don't think anyone ever found such emission from comets," Shostak remarked.
As scientists continue their search for solutions, both the cause and the origin of this phenomenon
are still considered to be among the field's most perplexing mysteries.
Even the most intelligent humans are having difficulty keeping up with the enigmatic sounds
signals and frequencies caught by our instruments because the universe is so vast.
It is certainly difficult to choose between being a believer or a non-believer in extraterrestrial
life when there is very little to no reliable facts concerning the universe's greatest mysteries.
Mysterious space signal In the year 2020, intense brief bursts of
radio waves were discovered in a fairly regular pattern.
Strange transmissions like this from space are known as Fast radio bursts.
According to Harvard University Professor Abraham Loeb, aliens attempting to contact
Earth is a distinct possibility.
Loeb rose to prominence in the realm of astronomy when a strange interstellar object known as
Oumuamua buzzed the Earth in 2017.
He proposed that the object was a manmade ship of some kind, implying that it was conceived
and built by some form of sentient life.
Since then, Loeb's view on news regarding unexplained signals originating from space
has become increasingly sought after.
To get a signal over to a section of the cosmos detectable by humans, intense bursts from
the opposite side of the universe would require a large source of energy.
Loeb and his colleague calculated how much energy is required to generate an FRB across
cosmological distances.
It turns out that the quantity of electricity required is comparable to the amount of power
intercepted by the Earth in sunlight.
In simpler terms, a project like this would require millions of times the power and resources
than any scientist on Earth has ever conceived.
It's realistic to presume that current technology is so far behind that such a project would
take thousands of years to complete.
Could this be the alien's way of demonstrating how powerful they are?
Could this be a forewarning, or just one of the numerous random and incomprehensible incidents
in our strange universe?
While the vast majority of people may believe this is simply another hoax extraterrestrial
story, a well-known scientist from Harvard believes it would be a mistake to rule out
aliens.
Although we do not yet have a definitive explanation for what generates FRBs, it is critical that
we stay open to possibilities such as extraterrestrials attempting to contact humanity.
So, what is a plausible explanation for this looping space signal?
Loeb believes the powerful signals observed in 2020 are most likely pulsars, which are
spinning neutron stars with strong magnetic fields.
What, exactly, are pulsars?
Pulsars are revolving neutron stars that have radiation pulses that recur at regular intervals
ranging from milliseconds to seconds.
While this may be a sensible idea, it is not supported by considerable evidence that may
demonstrate its veracity.
Whether or not these events are random, one thing is certain: it will take years, if not
decades or perhaps centuries, for us to figure out the answer to this puzzle.
Mysterious Rocky Planet Our cosmos evolved and developed a lot to
get to where it is today, therefore it is unusual to find aspects that we know are not
that old present in the early days of the universe.
We simply did not have all of the scientific ingredients that we have now in the early
Universe.
Despite the fact that the components required to produce rocky planets did not exist, astronomers
discovered a rocky planet dating back further than expected in the Milky Way galaxy.
To recreate this picture, an astronomical timeline is required.
The Big Bang created an abundance of the Light Elements in the cosmos, including hydrogen,
helium, and a lesser amount of lithium.
Around 200 million years after the Big Bang, stars began to form, and heavier elements
such as carbon, oxygen, and iron began to form in their cores.
Because rocky planets require components from star cores to form, we should not be able
to detect rocky planets in the early days of the universe.
Instead, these planets should be gaseous, like Jupiter!
In this study, one planet has been discovered circling TOI-561, a star that is approximately
10 billion years old and one of the oldest in our galaxy.
This planet was discovered using the transiting exoplanet survey satellite and then closely
examined using the Keck telescope.
This star is part of the galactic thick disc, a region of the Galaxy composed almost entirely
of ancient stars, giving it a distinct chemical composition.
The stars in the thick disc are substantially less metallic than those in the thin disc,
adding to the shock that it is a rocky planet orbiting the star.
The planet TOI-561b was discovered when it passed in front of the star it orbits.
This procedure temporarily dimmed the star's brightness, allowing the telescope to glimpse
the planet lurking just in front of the star.
The next step was to acquire information about the planet, which is not only rocky but also
has a mass three times that of the Earth.
adding to the evidence that this is a rocky planet, not a gaseous one TOI-561b is not
the only planet orbiting this old star, but the other two have been proved to be gaseous
rather than rocky.
It may take some time to continue this research and solve this enigma, but it looks that something
is different than we now comprehend it, whether it is the timeline of our universe, the composition
of this planet, or the ingredients required to form them.
Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments down below.