Planetary securityResearch network to search for extraterrestrial intelligence launched in U.K.
A network has been launched to promote academic research in the United Kingdom relating to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The network brings together academics from eleven institutions across the country, and it covers a broad spectrum of research topics, including potential methods for detecting signals, the linguistic challenge of deciphering messages, the probability of an extraterrestrial civilization interacting with Earth, and the longevity of civilizations.
A network has been launched to promote academic research in the United Kingdom relating to the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The U.K. SETI Research Network (UKSRN) brings together academics from eleven institutions across the country. The network’s patron is the Astronomer Royal, A Royal Astronomical Society release reports that Professor Martin Rees. UKSRN presented current activity and consider future strategy in a session and panel discussion at the National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) in St. Andrews on Friday 5 July.
UKSRN covers a broad spectrum of research topics, including potential methods for detecting signals, the linguistic challenge of deciphering messages, the probability of an extraterrestrial civilization interacting with Earth, and the longevity of civilizations.
Dr. Alan Penny, the coordinator of UKSRN said, “We hope that the existence of the network will excite interest from people in the U.K. astronomical community that have been thinking about SETI and encourage them to contribute their work. In this session at NAM, we are presenting the whole range of U.K. SETI activities to the community and hope that it will promote a wider understanding of, and activity in, this subject.”
Dr. Tim O’Brien from the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory described the capability of the U.K.’s recently commissioned e-MERLIN array of seven radio telescopes for SETI projects and report on progress in initial test observations.
The first proposal to search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations was actually inspired by the construction of the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank,” said O’Brien. “We went on to take part in the SETI Institute’s Project Phoenix from 1998 to 2003, searching for signals from about a thousand nearby stars. At that time the equipment required to sift through the data was expensive and unusual, but our modern telescopes are potentially capable of conducting these type of observations as a matter of course.”
The e-MERLIN array, which includes the Lovell Telescope, is connected by optical fibers and spread over 217 km from Jodrell Bank to Cambridge. This multi-telescope approach offers potential for distinguishing true extraterrestrial signals from interference generated here on Earth, a key problem for all radio SETI projects.
O’Brien is excited about future prospects, “It’s early days for this new SETI work at Jodrell but we think that using e-MERLIN, and future facilities such as the Square Kilometer Array, we could make an important contribution to the search for intelligent life elsewhere in
