Construction is about to begin on a large telescope array dedicated to detecting natural and artificial optical and infrared light sources (searching for extraterrestrial intelligence). Once up and running, a system called PANOSETI will be able to scan the entire sky, greatly improving our chances of detecting foreign laser signals.
Scientists are about to begin building a large telescope array to distinguish between natural and unnaturally produced optical and infrared signals. Once put into use, the project, known as PANOSETI (Panoramic Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program, more accurately known as the All-Weather Zone Near-Infrared and Optical Pulse Signal Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program, in order to simplify, we will use the "Panoramic Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program" later in this article to call it) will be scanned for the all-day zone, which will greatly improve our chances of finding a signal from an alien civilization.
Image of the Milky Way Center taken by the infrared camera of the Spitzer Space Telescope (Contributors: Courtesy of NASA, Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Susan Storovy et al.)
According to a press release from the University of California, San Diego, since construction began in 2018, the Panorama Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program has included two prototype telescopes located near the San Joselick Observatory in California. The telescope prototypes have begun collecting raw data for researchers led by Shirley White, a physicist and astronomer at the University of California, San Diego, to test the new design. This is just a small beginning, because eventually the entire array will contain hundreds of telescopes.
The project, which unites the University of California, San Diego, Berkeley, the University of California Observatory, and Harvard University, aims to build an optical extraterrestrial civilization search observatory dedicated to all-day domain scanning. Undoubtedly, this system will also be used to observe natural phenomena such as rapid radio bursts (mysterious energy radiation from outside galaxies). The Panorama Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program could also be used to study various known and unknown celestial phenomena, such as the evaporation of pulsars and primordial black holes.
These are two telescopes used in the Panoramic Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program, installed in the astronomical observation dome of the recently refurbished San Joserik Observatory in California. (Contributor: Laurie Hatch)
The function of observing various natural astronomical phenomena is of course useful and important, but the real purpose of the panoramic extraterrestrial search program is to observe the signals emitted by extraterrestrial civilizations, and unlike the radio extraterrestrial civilization search program, it looks for those obvious and strong visible light signals and rapidly erupting infrared radiation signals.
The traditional radio extraterrestrial civilization search program originated around 1960 (the concept was made in 1997 in the science fiction film "Chrono Contact"), which searched for radio signals that were inadvertently "leaked" or intentionally emitted outward by alien civilizations.
The latest panoramic extraterrestrial search program is a similar idea, but focuses on the visible range, such as laser pulse signals. Why search for visible light? Taking the laser pulse signal as an example, it has a big advantage that it does not decay with distance like radio waves, so alien civilizations are likely to choose this signal to contact their "neighbors" (on Earth, we call this contact method to send a message to aliens). This signal is likely to be sent in the form of the Morse code, a series of pulsed signals with obvious artificial traces.
"It's hard to predict the ideas of extraterrestrial civilizations, such as how they will communicate, travel or protect the planets they inhabit, and we don't know how to spot them, so the best way to search for extraterrestrial civilizations in a search program is to search for different types of signals and the various 'traces' that extraterrestrial technology can produce." Dan Wasim, a member of the Panorama Extraterrestrial Civilizations Search Program and chief technical expert at the University of California, Berkeley, explained this in an email to the tech blog's website. He added that "radio is suitable for non-directional information communication, while lasers are suitable for point-to-point communication with high information content." ”
The Panorama Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program also detects infrared radiation, which could help detect extraterrestrial "Dyson spheres," a giant structure hypothesized by the late Freeman Dyson. This structure was built by an advanced alien civilization that envelops an entire star to fully capture its energy, but it is not completely invisible to the outside world, as it leaks out infrared radiation at a certain wavelength. In theory, a panoramic extraterrestrial civilization search program could detect this infrared radiation. But Wassim corrected this statement: The system was not designed specifically for this megastructure, and while it may be used to detect such structures, it is actually better at detecting transient flashes of light than slow infrared radiation.
Whether observing in both the visible and infrared bands, proving that a signal is from an alien poses a series of challenges, but of course, that's another matter. We don't know if aliens exist or not, and which extraterrestrial civilizations to use to explore to find them, but we have to try. Whether intelligent life exists in galaxies is one of the deepest unsolved questions for humanity.
The Panorama Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program will repeatedly search the all-day domain at extremely high resolution, and the system will be able to detect nanosecond (billionths of a second) level signals. Each of these telescopes can cover a sky area of 10 degrees multiplied by 10 degrees (for comparison, the moon covers a 0.5 degrees area of the sky), so multiple observatories are needed to work together.
Once this system is successfully launched, the deep space area that has never been explored before will be carefully monitored. "Most extraterrestrial civilization search programs are limited to monitoring radio signals, and only a very few will have monitoring of signals in the visible and infrared bands and nanoseconds, and the panoramic extraterrestrial civilization search program is the first to detect rare light pulse signals in such a wide area of the sky." Wassim told the tech blog site. "Most extraterrestrial civilization search programs detect only one millionth of the entire world, and if the signal is not always emitted, then this way of detecting only one area at a time is like a peeping leopard in a tube, and it is difficult to detect signals from extraterrestrial civilizations."
At present, the team of the Panoramic Extraterrestrial Civilization Search Program is still considering the appropriate location of the telescope array, and Wassim said that the Paloma Observatory in San Diego is likely to be selected. In addition, it is envisaged that researchers are preparing to place several astronomical domes in the southern hemisphere and on the other side of the earth, and these work will start in 2021.
As a closing remark, I'd like to tell the aliens who emit light pulse signals: Come on, we already have a way to see you now!
BY: George Dvorsky
FY: TelescopeX
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