Space

Alien Megastructure Star To Spill SETI Secrets, Learn About Them Here

Meera V Nair
First Posted: Oct 31, 2016 05:00 AM EDT

The SETI project is all set to aim one of the world's most powerful radio telescopes at Tabby's Star for three nights in the hope for detecting an alien civilization. We all might be familiar with the star KIC 8462852, also known as Tabby's star which has been in the limelight since past few months.

The star was observed by NASA's Kepler mission and it has become renowned for its strange and unprecedented transit signal that was flagged by few citizen scientists. The bizarre behavior of the star could be a sign that indicates the super-advanced alien civilization which is been carried out in orbits. On the other hand, these mysterious lights could also be a swarm of comets or any yet-to-be-known stellar phenomenon.

According to Space.com, a new research on Kepler's observation shows that the overall brightness of the star has been decreasing and it possesses a new and confusing problem for the astronomers. The star is named after Tabetha S. Boyajian who discovered its peculiar signals. Some astronomers believe that there is an extraterrestrial civilization which is creating a starlight-blocking megastructure only at 1480 light-years from Earth.

According to Seeker.com, The Breakthrough Listen SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project is entrusting radio telescope time of one of the most powerful observatories on the planet to at least test the intelligence alien hypothesis. The project is funded by Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner and supported by British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and Facebook founder mark Zuckerberg.

On October 26, a team of astronomers used the renowned 100-meter Green bank telescope to study Tabby's star. A special instrument is attached to the huge radio telescope which will be used to carry out an extraordinary observation campaign of the star. The instrument will be attached for eight hours per night for three nights over the next two months. The Breakthrough Listen program consists of the most powerful SETI equipment on the planet.

As per Seeker.com, Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center said, "The program has the access to the largest telescopes on this planet. We can look it with greater sensitivity and for a wider range of signal types." This instrument can record a wide range of data across a variety of frequencies at the same time and thus, will help to detect the radio transmissions from any aliens at Tabby's star.

The project seeks the help of the public to look at the transits from the NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. Several irregular transits of Tabby's star caused the starlight to drop by 22%. The Breakthrough Listen hopes to investigate further and if it's proven that alien civilization is transmitting powerful radio signals into space, then it becomes an immediate need to detect it.

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