Seven candidate Dyson spheres found from their excess infrared radiation could be a case of mistaken identity, with evidence for dusty background galaxies spotted close to three of them.
“They could be an astrophysical phenomenon such as extreme debris discs, or something more exotic,” says Ann Marie Cody, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in California who is not involved in Project Hephaistos, but has conducted her own Dyson swarm search.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/85XbEPjKXUc
This month, two teams of astronomers announced the potential discovery of Dyson spheres in our galaxy. But have we truly found indicators of highly advanced civilizations? Join Dr. Franck Marchis and Dr. Lauren Sgro as they delve into these groundbreaking findings and their implications for SETI research.
The SETI Institute’s 2024 Drake Awards ceremony took place last Thursday at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, honoring significant contributions to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This event brought together experts in astrobiology, astrophysics, nuclear physics, and signal processing.
https://nautil.us/how-whales-could-help-us-speak-to-aliens-559443/
On Aug. 19, 2021, a humpback whale named Twain whupped back. Specifically, Twain made a series of humpback whale calls known as “whups” in response to playback recordings of whups from a boat of researchers off the coast of Alaska. The whale and the playback exchanged calls 36 times. In their 2023 published results, McGowan, Sharpe, and their coauthors are careful not to characterize their exchange with Twain as a conversation.
https://www.space.com/can-alien-life-exist-planet-rings
One locale that few scientists have considered for life is the set of rings that crown Jupiter, outside the gas giant's atmosphere. These rings, like those that circle all of our solar system's gas giants, are actually belts composed mainly of water-ice particles, some as small as grains of sand, others as large as mountains. Might life exist there?
In the latter half, astronomer Seth Shostak talked about his continued work in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), new ways to make contact with ETs, the importance of new planet discoveries, and all things astronomy and life in space. One intriguing new approach for SETI, beyond radio telescopes, is to piggyback onto other scientific studies in the radio part of the sky's spectrum to see if any of the sounds are not made by nature.
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/scientists-speak-humpback-whale-experiment.html
Scientists on the Whale-SETI team have successfully communicated with a humpback whale named Twain, having a 20-minute “conversation” with the aquatic animal. This historic experiment involved a recorded whale call that the team played into the ocean using an underwater speaker, which led Twain to circle their boat and respond using a “greeting signal.” The exchange lasted for 20 minutes, and Twain would match the interval variations from the team’s calls.
The SETI Institute invites you to the 2024 Drake Awards (May 16, 2024). Help celebrate leaders in the search for life in the Universe - the recipients of the Drake Award and the Carl Sagan Center Director's Award - and inspire the next generation of SETI scientists earning the SETI Forward Award.
“Was that E.T. or was it not E.T.? Nobody knows,” Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, tells Astronomy. “Nobody has ever found another explanation for what that might have been. It’s like you hear chains rattling in your attic and you think ‘My god, ghosts are real.’ But then you never hear them again, so what do you think?”
But spoiler alert: For the chief leader of the SETI Institute, established to search for and understand life beyond Earth, there's a need to step back and cuddle up to a cup of cosmic reality.
Avi Loeb is far from alone in seeking signs of life beyond our pale blue dot. Bioastronomers are using observatories like NASA's James Webb Telescope to search for chemical signatures of life on exoplanets — planets outside of our solar system. NASA is also sending probes to see if there are signs of life within the solar system. Other scientists are looking for "techno signatures," such as radio signals that could lead to other civilizations.
Universe Today discusses the field of radio astronomy with Dr. Wael Farah, who is a research scientist at the SETI Institute, about how radio astronomy teaches us about the myriad of celestial objects that populate our universe, along with the benefits and challenges, finding life beyond Earth, and how upcoming students can pursue studying radio astronomy. But what is radio astronomy and why is it so important to study?
Next #SETILive: Earth as an Exoplanet
TODAY, 3 April, 8:30 am PDT
With only one known example of a world with life - Earth - scientists recently examined whether a mission could determine if a planet was habitable. Björn Konrad joins senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis for an engaging SETI Live on how they used remote sensing data to draw their conclusions and what the results mean for the search for life beyond Earth.
Bill Diamond, president and CEO of the SETI Institute, certainly hopes so.
‘You don’t see politics, boundaries and ethnicities from space,’ he says. ‘Maybe such a discovery would offer us a different perspective on what it’s like to be human.’
The SETI Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Andrew Siemion will be honored with the prestigious 2024 Drake Award for his exceptional and pioneering contributions to SETI and radio astronomy and his leadership in the field. Siemion's distinguished career includes his role as the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute and Principal Investigator for the Breakthrough Listen Initiative at the University of Oxford.
By the way, Cairo in #KimStanleyRobinson's #MarsTrilogy apparently had (will have 😜) the best view to this gigantic volcano, and the rest of the Noctis Labyrinthus (3rd image).
William (Jack) Welch, a pioneering astronomer whose visionary work in radio astronomy helped advance the search for extraterrestrial technology, passed away this week at 90. Welch, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, played a pivotal role in designing and developing the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array, significantly advancing our understanding of the universe. Welch was married to SETI Institute co-founder Jill Tarter. https://www.seti.org/astronomer-william-jack-welch-dies
This piece [1] is a bit older but still interesting on the origin of the famous Drake equation, which estimates the number of advanced civilizations likely to exist in the Milky Way galaxy.