100,000 Galaxies examined for Signs of Advanced Alien Life, 50 of them show promise!

100,000 Galaxies examined for Signs of Advanced Alien Life,  50 of them show promise!

Our follow-up studies of those galaxies may reveal if the origin of their radiation results from natural astronomical processes, or if it could indicate the presence of a highly advanced civilization.”—Roger Griffith, Penn State College of Science

Using NASA’s WISE satellite, scientists from the Pennsylvania State Universityexamined more than 100,000 galaxies, scouring them for telltale signs of advanced alien civilizations. As expected, they found no obvious evidence but they did manage to isolate 50 galaxies that show promise.

Since its launch in December of 2009, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope has collected data from more than 100 million objects.

Out of that huge collection, Roger Griffith, the lead researcher of the study, selected 100,000 images of galaxies that he believed were the most interesting. Griffith and his colleagues focused on the heat signature of these galaxies, or how much infrared radiation they emitted.

Jason Wright, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State explains:

The idea behind our research is that, if an entire galaxy had been colonized  by an advanced spacefaring civilization, the energy produced by that civilization’s technologies would be detectable in mid-infrared [MIR] wavelengths — exactly the radiation that the WISE satellite was designed to detect for other astronomical purposes.”

The idea that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations could be spotted through their heat signature is not new. A little history, for those who are interested:

In 1960, theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson hypothesized that such a civilization could be detected by looking at their energy consumption. The more advanced they became, the more energy they would use. Upon passing a certain technological threshold, the aliens would need to look outside their planet for a reliable energy source.

As a result, they would harness the energy of their star (or stars) by surrounding it with a solar energy collector known as a Dyson sphere. If such an energy trap would be constructed around a star, it would show up as an anomaly in an infrared wavelength photo.

In 1964, Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev took things a little further by establishing a scale for advanced alien civilizations, based on how much energy they used. A Type 1 civilization would use all available resources on its home planet. A Type 2 civilization would have higher energy demands and therefore harness the energy of its star while a Type 3 civilization would use so much energy it would require the total output of their entire galaxy.

Pertaining to the Kardashev scale, humans are expected to reach Type 1 status in 100 to 200 years.

The researchers at Penn State University focused on finding signs of Type 2 – Type 3 alien civilizations, due to the vast number of surveyed galaxies and current technological limitations.

Out of the 100,000 potential candidates, the scientists isolated 50 galaxies that showed “unusually high levels of mid-infrared radiation.” All of them show signs that at least 50% of their starlight is being reprocessed into MIR. Further studies will show whether this discrepancy stems from “natural astronomical processes, or if it could indicate the presence of a highly advanced civilization.”

However exciting this research might sound, we have to address an important question: Would we be able to detect such an advanced civilization, if it even exists? As Arthur C. Clarke once famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Or, as science fiction author Karl Schroader put it, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable fromnature.”

Freeman Dyson himself—now 91 years of age but still interested in the secrets of the deep space—was contacted by Scientific American in order to discuss the study’s findings.

Our imaginings about the way that aliens might make themselves detectable are always like stories of black cats in a dark room,” he said. “If there are any real aliens, they are likely to behave in ways that we never imagined. The WISE result shows that the aliens did not follow one particular path. That is good to know. But it still leaves a huge variety of other paths open. The failure of one guess does not mean that we should stop looking for aliens.”

Well put, Mr. Dyson!

What about you? Do you share his optimism? Let us know in the comments!

Source: http://locklip.com/