A new technique that could use a star's ability to focus and amplify communications has been studied by researchers at Penn State University and has been accepted for publication in a journal. Our Sun is described in the study as acting like a cell phone tower in space as part of a network of probes and relays.
The bending of light as it passes by massive objects is part of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. The space around the object warps, focusing and magnifying the light. The researchers want to use this technique to relay communications across the vast distances of space.
According to the professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State who taught the course and is the director of the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center,Astronomers have considered using a giant telescope to look at planets around other stars. If we ever sent our probes to another star, it was thought that we could communicate with them. We should be able to detect communications if we look in the right place.
The study believed the nearest probe would be located in the solar system to use our sun as a lens.
The lead author on the study said that humans use networks to communicate all the time. When using a cell phone, the waves are sent to the nearest tower, which connects to the next tower and so on. Network communication systems have many advantages over point to point communications. It makes sense to use stars as lens because we can see where probes need to be located.
Since this was a class project, the students did not find any signals of extraterrestrial origin when they looked at the wavelength they observed. The insight into how we might contact extraterrestrial civilizations beyond Earth proved valuable to both the faculty and students. The University of California, Los Angeles encourages students in this particular graduate-level course to conduct SETI projects and publish their results in a scientific journal.
The center for extraterrestrial intelligence is centered on this graduate course. Students come from a wide range of disciplines. A student from another university joined us this year. The SETI field is so young that it is possible for students to make real contributions and publish research in this class. It's amazing.
The search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations continues. The Wow! signal, which was a radio signal detected by Ohio State University's Big Ear telescope on August 15, 1977, is the strongest candidate for an extraterrestrial candidate ever detected.
Is there anyone else in the universe? Is it possible that other technological civilizations are also looking for signals in the universe? Time will tell, and that's why we science.
The journal that gives the information is The Astronomical Journal.
The press release was issued by the Phys.org.
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