Radio Astronomy

Radio Astronomy

In the future there will be designated interstellar objectives, and sooner or later our spacecraft will have human crews. In the Milky Way Galaxy there must be many planets millions of years older than Earth, and some that are billions of years older. Should we not have been visited?In all the billions of years since the origin of our planet, has there not been even once a strange craft from a distant civilization surveying our world from above, and slowly settling down to the surface to be observed by iridescent dragonflies, incurious reptiles, screeching primates or wondering humans. The idea is natural enough It has occurred to everyone who has contemplated, even casually, the question of intelligent life in the universe. But has it happened in fact? The critical issue is the quality of the purported evidence, rigorously and sceptically scrutinized – not what sounds plausible, not the unsubstantiated testimony of one or two self-professed eyewitnesses.

By this standard there are no compelling cases of extraterrestrial visitation, despite all the claims about UFO’s and astronauts which sometimes make it seem that our planet is awash in uninvited guests. I wish it were otherwise. There is something irresistible about the discovery of even a token, perhaps a complex inscription, but, best by far, a key to the understanding of an alien and exotic civilization. It is an appeal we humans have felt before.

Radio Astronomy. If we receive a message from an extraterrestrial civilisation, how could it possibly be understood? Image: Enchanted World Beautiful Elf with Pink Hair © Elena

Anyway, we do not expect an advanced technical civilisation on any other planet in our solar system. If one were only a little behind us – 10, 000 years, say – it would have no advanced technology at all. If it were only s little ahead of us – we who are already exploring the solar system – its representatives should by now be here. To communicate with other civilisations, we require a method adequate not merely for interplanetary distances but for interstellar distances. Ideally, the method should be inexpensive, so that a huge amount of information could be sent and received at very little cost; fast, so an interstellar dialogue is rendered possible; and obvious, so any technological civilisation, no matter what its evolutionary plan, will discover it early. Surprisingly, there is such a method it is called radio astronomy.