Is it impossible to find an alien civilization? The Arrecibo Telescope, which was trying to communicate with the universe, collapsed after 57 years

The Arrecibo radio telescope collapsed [AP=연합뉴스]

Will there be intelligent life like humans in outer space? ‘SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)’ is a term for scientific research that does this. They mainly use radio telescopes to capture radio signals that could have been sent by intelligent life in outer space.

At that time, the radio telescope at the Arrecibo Astronomical Observatory in Puerto Rico, which served as the “eye” of the Earth, finally collapsed after 57 years. Damage began in August and decommissioning was announced, but it collapsed on its own. The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) tweeted the first (local time), saying: “The 305-meter diameter telescope at the Arrecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico collapsed overnight.” “No injuries were reported.”

The Arrecibo Observatory was built in 1963 in a limestone well in Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean. The radio telescope located here was the world’s largest single radio telescope until China built the 500-m-diameter FAST radio telescope in 2016. Here, academics have studied alien planets and tracked asteroids heading toward Earth. The discovery of a binary pulsar (a neutron star rotating at high speed with a strong magnetic field) using the Arrecibo telescope led to the Nobel Prize.

SF Contact, released in 2016. This is a scene from a conversation with an alien creature that has found Earth. [영화 캡처]

The Arrecibo radio telescope began to draw serious public attention as it was used for the exploration of extraterrestrial life. The Arrecibo radio telescope is capable of transmitting and receiving. Dr. Frank Drake and Cosmos author Dr. Carl Sagan used this radio telescope to transmit the ‘Receipt Message’ to extraterrestrial life in 1974. It was a project that started with the assumption that if an extraterrestrial intelligent life With science and technology you can communicate by radio waves like humans, you can receive messages from Earth. Since then, the ‘SETI @ home’ project, which analyzes the data received by radio telescopes at times when personal computers are free, has also been underway, but ended last March. It was decided to stop assigning data to people to focus on analyzing the accumulated research results.

However, the alien tracking continues. SETI has launched a new alien signal tracking project called ‘Breakthrough Listen’. Attempts are also being made to actively communicate with extraterrestrial life forms. A representative example is METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) International, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, US We are investigating who will send messages to extraterrestrial life and what content it will contain. The group collaborated with the organizers of the Sonar Music Festival in Spain to create a message in binary method, and in May 2018, it was transmitted to GJ 273b, 12 light years from Earth through a radio telescope in Tromso, Norway. . This is because if the aliens understand the numbers and counting, they will be able to decipher the musical message.

Received on SETI website [SETI 홈페이지 캡쳐]

In addition to radio waves, there have been several attempts to contact extraterrestrial life. A good example is the Voyager program launched in 1997 by the United States for exploration outside the solar system. NASA has loaded Voyager 1 and 2 phonograph records called ‘Voyager Golden Records’ respectively. It also includes music from different cultures and eras, greetings in 55 languages ​​and messages from the then President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, and the UN Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim.

The Korea Astronomical Research Institute is also beginning search work before large-scale research on extraterrestrial life. Dr. Moon-Yeon Cheon Kim Min-seon said, “We will start planning research to explore the phenomena of space life from next year.”

Reporter Kwon Yujin [email protected]