Scientists are stepping up their efforts to look for signs of alien life.
Experts from the SETI Institute, an organization dedicated to tracking extraterrestrial intelligence, are developing state-of-the-art methods for detecting signatures from space that indicate the possibility of extraterrestrial existence.
These so-called 'technosignatures' can range from the chemical composition of a planet's atmosphere to laser emissions, structures orbiting other stars.
Dr. Tony Beasley, director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), based in Virginia, said: “Determining whether we are in the universe as technologically capable life is one of the most important questions in science.”
SETI scientists plan to develop a system that will 'align' with the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in Mexico and feed the data into their technosignature search engine.
Beasley added: “As the VLA conducts its routine scientific observations, this new system will add value and value to the data we already collect.”
Experts argue that life forms, whether sapient or not, can produce detectable indicators such as more oxygen, less methane, and a variety of other chemical indicators.
In addition, scientists are also developing computer models to simulate extraterrestrial environments that could help further search for habitable planets and life outside the solar system.
Victoria Meadows, Principal Investigator of NASA's Virtual Planetary Laboratory at the University of Washington: 'Upcoming telescopes in space and on earth will be able to observe the atmospheres of Earth-sized planets orbiting in the Goldilocks zone, so it is important to understand how to better recognize the signs of habitability and life on these planets .
“These computer models will help us determine if the observed planet can more or less support life.”
Meanwhile, the SETI Breakthrough Listen Initiative, which was launched in 2015 to 'listen' to signals from alien life, has released nearly two petabytes of data from the most comprehensive study of radio emissions from the plane of the Milky Way galaxy and the region around it.
Currently, the organization invites everyone interested to study data collected from various telescopes around the world and look for signals from intelligent civilizations.
Yuri Milner, founder of the Breakthrough Listen Initiative, said: “Throughout human history, we have had a limited amount of data to search for life beyond Earth. Now that we have a lot of data, we can do real science and by making this data available to the general public, anyone can know the answer to this deep question. '
Initiatives and strategies to expand the search for extraterrestrial life were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Seattle.
