When/if alien life ever cruises toward Earth in big spaceships, we’re probably not just going to see it; we’re going to hear it via narrow radio signals. If an extraterrestrial civilization wanted to say hello to us, it’s probably going to be loud and unmistakable.
Well, new research suggests that the universe might scramble those calls before they ever reach Earth.
Scientists at the SETI Institute say turbulent “space weather” around distant stars could be distorting potential alien transmissions. Their findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal, suggest that cosmic interference might be screwing up alien signals.
Things like stellar storms, plasma turbulence, and violent bursts like coronal mass ejections might smear what would otherwise be precise radio signals across multiple frequencies.
Alien Signals Could Be Getting Lost in the Absolute Noise of Space
If aliens are blasting crisp, crystal-clear signals from their home planet, the noisy, chaotic mess that is the space between their home and the hours could stretch and blur them before they escape the system. By the time it reaches Earth, the signal might be so diluted that our traditional search methods could miss it entirely.
“It can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it’s there,” said Vishal Gajjar, a SETI astronomer who co-authored the study with research assistant Grayce C. Brown.
The team modeled this effect using radio transmissions from spacecraft in our own solar system. By analyzing how solar activity distorts those signals, they estimated how much worse the effect could be around other stars with more intense stellar winds or eruptions.
There is a court, kind of embarrassing implication here: all the years we’ve spent listening to space might have been for nothing because we are listening for the wrong thing. Better late than never.
Thanks to all that stellar turbulence, alien transmissions might arrive looking weaker and more disorganized, a lot more like background noise that tends to be ignored. The study suggests that future searches should scan wider frequency ranges or look at higher frequencies that may be less affected by stellar interference.
Should all of this explain the abject silence of space? At least we figured it out now, giving us the chance to tune our radios just right until we hear the voices of another planet.
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