Search for extraterrestrial: Scientists develop new Richter-like scale to detect potential alien signals from space

Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies the young star cluster NGC 602.
Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies the young star cluster NGC 602. NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI / AURA

Over the years numerous facts, proven and unproven videos, classified documents and several recorded radio signals tried to prove that aliens or extraterrestrial entities are living somewhere in the universe. Now, scientists have taken one step further and created a special tool to detect extraterrestrial signals which would prove whether someone from outer space is really trying to contact humans or not.

In 2015, when a team of Russian astronomers reported that a telescope in Caucasus region had intercepted an unknown radio signal from the outer space, people questioned that did aliens try to contact humans? But the answer did not satisfy them.

Soon after receiving the questions related to the mystery of alien existence, further observation revealed that detected signal, which scientists believed at first to have originated from distant star called HD164595, was actually came from a passing plane or a person on a citizens band radio or may be originated due to a temporary malfunction of the telescope's electronics.

Many people find the topic 'existence of alien life,' extremely interesting. But when they come to know about the reality of such false signals, it is obvious that they will feel disappointed. But, now scientists have created their own Richter-like scale, which will allow the extraterrestrial researchers to rate interesting signals that would show a sign of alien intelligence from zero to 10.

As per the researcher, who is working on this project, Duncan Forgan from University of St Andrews Centre for Exoplanet Science, while the zero value will indicate that there is nothing interesting about a detected signal, if the scale shows 10 that will exhibit as "an alien space probe orbiting the Earth or an alien shaking your hand."

As reported by The Guardian, while talking about the evaluation of any potential extraterrestrial signal, Forgan also said, "There could be a problem with your telescope or a radio frequency coming from something on Earth. You might think you found an alien but actually, you found a taxi rank."

The new scale is actually an upgraded version of the existing Rio scale, which is already used by alien hunters. But, the new version called Rio 2.0, assigns scores to the signals detected by Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

In the journal International Journal of Astrobiology, the scientists said that the rating system is also being made available to the public. "It is clear from citizen science projects that the general public are able to complete similar classification tasks with relatively low amounts of training," researchers added.

Jill Tarter, an author of the new study as well as the co-founder of the Seti Institute in Mountain View, California said that in the process of evaluating the signals more credibility will be given to the discoveries with multiple independent Rio scores.

Another co-author, Andrew Siemion, who is also the director at Seti Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, stated "We absolutely encourage wide assessment of the Rio scale for any purported discovery, particularly by independent scientists. It is critical in any scientific process to have an independent review of methods and interpretation."

While many people will find this new invention highly interesting, on the other hand, many individuals would not pay much attention to it, as there are some people, who still don't believe in the existence of these extraterrestrial entities. But, earlier a former NASA research scientist, who is now a professor of physics at the University of Albany, Kevin Knuth has revealed that there are shreds of evidence available in the universe that supports the existence of alien spacecraft, commonly known as UFO and it's high time to start believing that humans are not alone in the universe. He shared some top-secret government documents that also showed that the higher authority knows about the alien entities but still they try to cover up all the news.

However, for the official ratification, the newly developed and extremely hopeful scale has been submitted to the International Academy of Astronautics Permanent Committee on Seti.

This article was first published on July 28, 2018
Related topics : Nasa
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