Scientists have proposed a new way to search for extraterrestrials

Engineer David Messerschmitt from the California Institute in Berkeley proposed to adjust the strategy of the search for possible signals from alien civilizations. The results of own researches Creator published in the journal Acta Astronautica, but briefly they can be found on the website of the New Scientist.

In the scope of the project SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) searching for signals from extraterrestrial intelligences are maintained in a narrow range of frequencies. Scientists believe that a technologically advanced civilization in the course of their own activities able to generate radiation with a wave length 21 cm (and the corresponding frequency of about 1420 MHz).

This frequency corresponds to the hyperfine metastable transition between 2 States of hydrogen atom, which differ in the mutual orientation of the magnetic moments of the electron and the nucleus (consisting of 1 proton). Objects SETI (radio telescopes all over the Earth) were redirected to other frequencies, but have been aimed at finding signal in close range.

Messerschmitt believes that the energy costs of extraterrestrial civilizations on the endless transmission signal in close range can be very large and therefore disadvantageous. It is wiser to look for a separate short and long signals in a wider range of frequencies, according to the researcher.

For this purpose the engineer proposes to reconfigure the host apparatus observatories, to modify the software responsible for processing the received data. With all of this Messerschmitt believes that it is not necessary to completely dissociate themselves from the search for traces of extraterrestrial civilizations in a narrow spectrum.

The SETI project is supervised by the California Institute in Berkeley and is supported by NASA. Participate in many research organizations from around the world. The idea of the search signals of possible intelligent inhabitants of other planets were formed in the late 1950's, and 1's regular research started in the 1970 H. real-time SETI failed to find traces of extraterrestrial civilizations.

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