Newly Discovered Exoplanets To Be Searched for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Scientists in search for extraterrestrial intelligence have narrowed their search by using data from newly discovered exoplanets.
Specificically, astronomers searching for signals from intelligent aliens are targeting recently discovered alien planets, now totalling more than 700.
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope have discovered 2,326 exoplanet candidates since it started in march 2009, and most of these are mostly like to be confirmed, reports said.
The study, led by the University of California, Berkeley, involves scientists from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Va.
Scientists involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) used data from radio telescope observations of Kepler planets, searching for radio signals could represent an extraterrestrial message.
According to astronomers, signals not caused by natural phenomena are likely to be narrow in frequency, as known astrophysical phenomena such as black holes and exploding stars tend to release radio waves across a wider range of frequencies.
Afew signals that fit the description have been found, but according to scientists, these are merely examples of terrestrial radio frequency interference caused by radio signals broadcast here on Earth.
According to researchers, the signals were probably produced locally because they see the same pattern from two different alien planets, called KOI-817 and KOI-812 ("KOI" stands for "Kepler Object of Interest").
"If we see a signal coming from multiple positions on the sky, like the ones below, it is very likely to be interference," the researchers said.
"Even though these signals are interference, detecting events with similar characteristics to what we expect from ET is a good indication that the first steps of our detection algorithms are working properly," the scientists reported.
