When scientists are trying to raise money for a research endeavor, their ideas aren’t always the most exciting. The most fascinating areas of science are typically the most speculative, but research funding institutions prefer to finance specific studies that have a good potential of producing practical results. Lucianne Walkowicz, a researcher conducting post-doctoral studies in astrophysics at Princeton University, adds, “Many times, you have to establish that you have already done half the work necessary for that project to show that it is doable.”
Based on this criterion, Walkowicz’s current idea has little probability of receiving any money. The researcher intends to start a new SETI-style search for intelligent alien entities that do not rely on traditional approaches like listening to radio waves. Walkowicz wants to investigate the stars, specifically to determine if aliens can alter the light they emanate in our direction to send us various signals.
Walkowicz got money for this study from the John Templeton Foundation’s “New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology” initiative, which is administered by the University of Chicago. The initiative is geared toward cutting-edge research, with one of its goals being to find an answer to the question “Are we alone in the Universe?”
Although the prospects of uncovering an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization as a consequence of this experiment are slim, the researcher is adamant about putting this novel approach to the test. “Until now, people have had preconceived notions about the shape a message would take if it came from a knowledgeable extraterrestrial society,” Walkowicz adds. Until recently, people have been seeking signals that are comparable to those that our culture might envisage since we couldn’t think of any other ways for more evolved civilizations to communicate.
It would make little difference how aliens “flash” a star if they were so evolved that the outcome would be simple to identify with present technology. ” “But what if we’ve previously discovered an alien signal, but we haven’t noticed it because of our preconceptions?” Walkowicz explained.
As a result, the researcher advocated studying various signals already gathered with the help of other scientists (including Princeton University’s Edwin Turner). Walkowicz wants to look through the records of the Kepler missions, which have been scouring the cosmos since 2009 for stars that “flicker” due to planets circling in front of them (in relation to our planet). Also, the Kepler mission spotted stars that “flicker” for a variety of reasons, including sunspots, being eclipsed by other stars, or naturally lightening and darkening.
Walkowicz and colleagues now wish to find distinct patterns of variability using a range of software tools. “We’ll find a lot of things we understand, but we’ll also look for things we can’t explain using the physical processes we know now,” the researcher stated.
Of course, scientists will initially try to explain the strange events using traditional physics; in fact, discovering new sorts of star variations might be a useful side consequence of this endeavor. The new examinations of the sky that will be conducted with devices still in the works, such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, will lead to the discovery of new sorts of unexplained phenomena, and the Walkowicz team’s efforts will allow some of them to be explained.
After Walkowicz’s team has ruled out all-natural explanations, they will explore the possibility that an observed effect is a form of communication employed by an intelligent alien civilization. “What evidence do we have to believe this is an alien signal? I’m not sure what to say, but discovering anything for which you don’t have an explanation is always fascinating, no matter what it is. Of course, if the message is discovered “”SOS, send water” in Morse code, it would be fantastic,” Walkowicz remarked.
The researcher admits that the findings will most likely be more unclear than that, and we may never know if this is a deliberate signal. “Obviously, you do not want to start with the oddest answer. But we need to think in a different way. “We may not be ambitious enough if we are always successful, without exception,” the study says.
