6-1-12 THE HUNT FOR OTHER INTELLIGENT CIVILISATIONS HAS A NEW TECHNIQUE IN ITS ARSENAL, BUT ITS FIRST USE HAS TURNED UP NO SIGNS OF ALIEN BROADCASTS.
Australian astronomers used "very long baseline interferometry" to examine Gliese 581, a star known to host planets in its "habitable zone".
The hunt for aliens is fundamentally a vast numbers game, so the teams result should come as no surprise....
... Gliese 581, a red dwarf star about 20 light-years away, is a particularly interesting candidate for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or Seti.
It has six planets, two of which are "super-Earths" likely to be in this habitable zone.
So astronomers at Curtin Universitys International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia, put one of radio astronomys highest-resolution techniques to work, listening in to the star system....
... More
See Also:
Do Extra-Solar Planets Really Exist?
Tally of Confirmed Alien Planets Surpasses 700
The Wow! Signal: One Mans Search for SETIs Most Tantalizing Trace of Alien Life
