Initial scans of a
cigar-shaped interstellar 'comet' have yet to confirm it is of extra-terrestrial
origin. Scientists began listening for signals coming from the space rock,
named Oumuamua, using the world's largest directable radio telescope yesterday.
A number of prominent figures have claimed the strange object may be an alien
vehicle of some kind.
Initial readings, taken by
scientists from Breakthrough Listen, have been made public for the first time. Experts
used the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia, to follow the object for ten
hours on Wednesday from around 8pm GMT (3pm ET). They are listening for
electromagnetic signals, no stronger than those emitted by a mobile phone, that
cannot be produced by natural celestial bodies.
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| The cigar-shaped object, named 'Oumuamua by its discoverers, sailed past Earth last month and is the first interstellar object seen in the solar system |
If they find them, it
would be proof that extraterrestrial forces really could be at play. So far,
there has been no evidence of artificial signals emanating from the object, but
sorting through the large volumes of data collected may take some time to
complete.
A block of observations,
the first of four which are planned, ran from 8.45pm GMT (3:45pm ET) to 2.45am
GMT Thursday (9:45pm ET Wednesday).
Speaking to MailOnline
about the results Andrew Siemion, director of Berkeley SETI Research Center,
said: 'The most interesting property of the universe is that it gave rise to
beings capable of asking about its existence.
'That’s a fascinating thing
from every possible angle. To find technologically advanced life elsewhere
could suggest that intelligence is a defining characteristic of the universe. It’s
virtually certain Oumuamua comes from another star system, so it’s alien in
that sense. Whether it's artificial, that’s a very remote possibility. We spend
most of our time surveying pedestrian objects, but occasionally something special
will capture our attention. They all turn out to be natural, until one doesn’t.
With the technology we now have, it’s a straightforward thing for us to look,
but that’s all we can do.'
Oumuamua is a Hawaiian
term meaning 'a messenger from afar arriving first'. Breakthrough Listen
observed Oumuamua across four radio bands, spanning billions of individual
channels across the 1 to 12 GHz range. The instrument accumulated 90 TB of raw
data over a two hour observation of Oumuamua itself.
So far, data from the
S-band receiver - covering frequencies from 1.7 to 2.6 GHz - has been
processed, and analysis of the remaining three bands is ongoing. Most
intriguingly, it is the wrong shape for an asteroid — they are typically
round. Another oddity is that Oumuamua
is flying very 'cleanly', without emitting the usual cloud of space dust that
astronomers observe around asteroids.
Experts say this suggests
it is made of something dense: probably rock, but possibly metal. One
astronomer claims that the space rock, named Oumuamua, could be an alien
spacecraft with broken engines that is tumbling through our solar system.
Dr Jason Wright from Penn
State University suggests that a broken alien spacecraft move in exactly the same way as the
interstellar comet. Oumuamua was first detected on October 19 by a long-running
research programme called Pan-STARRS, which uses powerful telescopes to
photograph and monitor the night sky at the University of Hawaii. Its amazing
speed has led some experts to conclude it is the first such object to have come
towards us from outside our solar system.
Analysts also say its
faintly red colour indicates it has been subjected to interstellar cosmic
radiation which is harsher than we experience in our solar system. The fact
that it doesn't seem to have engines or show signs of propulsion may wreck the
interplanetary-spacecraft theory.
If a radio signal does
come back from the object, Professor Avi Loeb, Professor of Astronomy at
Harvard University, suggests that we will need to proceed with caution. Speaking
to MailOnline, he said: 'My recommendation, as in any dialogue, is that we
first listen and do our best to understand what we are hearing.
'Once we figure this out,
we can decide how to respond. Overall, I am an optimist. I believe that a very
intelligent civilisation will be peaceful, and we could save ourselves millions
or billions of years by learning from it.’
'But there is also the
possibility that such a civilisation will have hostile intentions and risk our
existence, so we should deliberate carefully in any future contact with them.'
Via Dailymail