The Breakthrough Listen Investigation for Periodic Spectral Signals (BLIPSS) is a novel software architecture utilizing a fast folding algorithm to enable routine searches for periodic technosignatures in radio data.
“The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is an active quest to find evidence of advanced alien life in the Universe through signatures of their technologies,” said Cornell University graduate student Akshay Suresh and colleagues.
“Radio SETI has been ongoing since the early 1960s.”
“Two broad categories of potential radio extraterrestrial intelligence signals are intentional beacon emissions and leakage radiation emanating from alien technologies.”
“Of these two technosignatures, the spectrotemporal characteristics of the latter are much harder to speculate. In addition, such leakage signals are likely to be weaker.”
“Hence, modern radio SETI efforts have primarily focused on wideband searches for deliberate narrowband beacons from Galactic planetary systems and neighboring galaxies.”
By directing their focus towards the central region of the Milky Way, with its dense congregation of stars and possibly habitable exoplanets, the BLIPSS astronomers amplify the odds of capturing compelling evidence of extraterrestrial technology.
If an alien civilization wanted to communicate with other civilizations throughout the Milky Way, the Galaxy’s core holds potential as a strategic site for a beacon.
“Of all directions in the sky, the line of sight toward the Galactic center offers the greatest propensity for the emergence of intelligent life,” they explained.
“Further, radial beacons from the Galactic center are viable given their advantageous positioning for galaxy-wide communications.”
“Thus, the Galactic center is an ideal first target for our periodic technosignature searches.”
The team began by testing their BLIPSS algorithm on known pulsars, successfully detecting the expected periodic…
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