2019 saw astronomers in Australia identify a burst of radio waves using the infamous Parkes Radio Telescope. They dismissed the radio waves as interference, but in 2020, intern Shane Smith of Breakthrough Listen identified an unusual signal in the data.
Breakthrough Listen is one of Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives: space science programmes investigating the Universe for signs of extraterrestrial communication. Listen is reanalysing the signal as a possible technosignature showing evidence of alien life.
Science educator and filmmaker Simon Holland has shown a particular interest in the signal, which is called Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1 (BLC-1). Breakthrough Listen’s renewed analysis of the signal has bolstered Holland’s confidence in its authenticity.
The researchers’ analysis of the signal is in a race against the China National Space Administration. This agency is researching BLC-1 using the Five-Hundred-Metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST).
Early Research Into the Signal’s Origins
Researchers have identified BLC-1 as a single-point source with a narrow electromagnetic spectrum. Early observations suggested a known natural source couldn’t have produced the signal.
Given that the Parkes Telescope identified continuous changes in the signal’s frequency, researchers believed it could be orbiting a distant star, perhaps Proxima Centauri. This star already has two confirmed planets: a gas-filled planet similar to Jupiter and a potentially habitable rocky planet called Proxima b.
Analysing Proxima Centauri’s Star System
The Breakthrough Listen researchers scanned Proxima Centauri’s star system across a range of frequencies from 700 MHz to 4 GHz. This resulted in the identification of four million hits, which they filtered down to one million.
They pointed the Parkes Telescope at Proxima Centauri and then moved it away, repeating this to create an on-off pattern. This left them with over 5,000 technosignature candidates. However, analysis of these candidates suggests that faulty equipment in Australia could have created the signal.
Now, more research is underway. Breakthrough Listen has discovered that an automated sorting programme in their filters had missed signals resembling BLC-1 but emitted at other frequencies. That said, the frequencies match common clock oscillator frequencies used in digital electronics. This points back to human, not alien, technology.
The search got even more interesting when Breakthrough Listen split the data and identified another four technosignature candidates. However, analysis so far suggests that these candidates are also likely Earth-based.
The research is far from over, though. Breakthrough Listen continues to examine Proxima Centauri and many other stars.
The Potential for Science’s Next Giant Leap
If Breakthrough Listen connects BLC-1, or a different technosignature, with life on another planet, science will take a giant leap into Universal exploration.
Giving Pledge signatory Yuri Milner has written a short book — Eureka Manifesto — about humanity’s mission to explore and understand the Universe. A finding as major as extraterrestrial life could be enough to kickstart the investment of more resources into investigating the cosmos.
In the book, Milner shares a five-step action plan that would allow humanity to recalibrate towards this shared mission. The steps in his plan align with projects he has already launched, including the Breakthrough Prize and the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
About Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives
The research into BLC-1 highlights Breakthrough Listen’s scientific ambition and its importance within the broader mission of Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives. These include:
- Breakthrough Watch, which is working to identify and characterise rocky planets around Alpha Centauri and other stars within 20 light years of Earth.
- Breakthrough Message, a competition encouraging debate over how we may be able to communicate with alien civilisations.
- Breakthrough Discuss, an annual conference bringing together some of the world’s biggest minds in science. The 2024 conference focused on space missions, astrobiology, and artificial intelligence, bringing together a collection of speakers on the theme “A Cosmic Tapestry for Exploration.”
Learn more about Breakthrough Listen and the other Breakthrough Initiatives.
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