Part 1: History of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
Since Galileo Gallilei’s observations of Jupiter and its moons in 1610, there have been constant improvements to the devices we use to observe the extraterrestrial. As humans developed their telescopes and radios, it was only a matter of time until they would look for peers among the stars.
In 1896, Nikola Tesla took one of the first major steps to look for and find extraterrestrial life. He proposed turning his wireless electrical transmission system towards Mars to communicate with Martians. In 1899, he thought he picked up a signal from Mars because there was a static that cut out when Mars entered the sky. Guglielmo Marconi, Lord Kelvin and David Peck Todd all opined around that time that the signals Tesla picked up were in fact Martian signals. In 1924, Mars passed the closer to Earth than it did in the previous century and than it would in 80 years. Radio silence during that day was promoted to allow for telescopes at the United States Naval Observatory try to pick up radio signals with the least interference as possible. Many doubt that those signals were actually from Martians though and attention has been turned to interstellar communication.
Moving forward from Tesla’s experiments, governments and independent research groups focused on using microwave signals for receiving and interpreting the messages that aliens send us. This largely stems from a paper that Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison published in 1959 about the likeliness that aliens would use microwaves to contact us if they were going to contact us at all. This paper took the assumption that there are likely intelligent beings much more advanced than us in another solar system. They assumed that because they thought Earth and Mars could sustain life, there should be at least one planet near a Sun-like star that would sustain life for a long time. Thus they tried to figure out which frequency of light they aliens would contact us with.
While many frequencies are cluttered with many types of background and noise, there is a relatively silent range where neutral hydrogen emits and absorbs: a wavelength around 21cm (1420 MHz). This wavelength is particularly silent outside of the galactic plane, but Doppler effects can modulate this electromagnetic radiation’s frequency by plus or minus 300 kilocycles per second (or 300 kHz). Within the galactic plane, noise can be as much as forty times stronger. Cocconi and Morrison go on to state that the power needed to observe such signal is within our capabilities with a large enough telescope. Equations to calculate the necessary duration of detection with regards to the quantity of background is provided in their paper. They propose four planets outside of the galactic plane that would be prime candidates for detection. While some may find this research to be promoting science fiction, Cocconi and Morrison believed the use of radio telescopes to find extraterrestrial intelligence was necessary because if we didn’t try our chances of communicating with other beings would be zero.
Seven months after the publication of Morrison and Cocconi’s paper, Frank Drake, a professor at the University of Cornell, took the paper’s suggestions and pointed a 26 meter radio telescope at two of the four stars that the paper recommended. He named this effort “Project Ozma”. This simple and inexpensive experiment went on for a few months and yielded no data. Soon after, Prof. Drake hosted a “search for extraterrestrial intelligence” meeting where a collection of 10 space enthusiasts named “The Order of the Dolphins” met. Among these ten people were Carl Sagan (as a young postdoc) and Philip Morrison. The most consequential idea to come out of this meeting was the equation that Prof. Drake set forth. This is not an analytical equation, but is simply an estimate to interest others in this topic. The “Drake Equation” estimates how many other intelligent civilizations that humans could in theory communicate with.
The United States was not the only nation in on looking for extraterrestrial intelligence. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union shared an interest in SETI and completed searches for radio signals using omnidirectional antennas. Just as in the American case, none of these attempts led to communication with extraterrestrial life. However, the Soviet Union’s scientists did progress the field of SETI. Specifically, Iosif Shklovsky had a significant impact through his book Universe, Life, Intelligence.
Back in the United States, The Ohio State University had been working on detecting radio and microwave signals from space for the purpose of SETI. They assigned the Big Ear telescope to look in the radio and microwave region for signals across the sky. This project began with the construction of the “Big Ear” telescope in 1956. By 1963, this telescope was turned on. After years of looking for extraterrestrial signals, an abnormal ray of around frequency 1420MHz was detected in 1977. This signal has since become known as the “Wow Signal”. While the readouts for the telescope were being reviewed by Jerry R. Ehman, he circled the abnormal portion and wrote “Wow” next to it. The readout stated 6EQUJ5 which, despite popular myth, means nothing on its own. The numbers and letters represent intensity of the signal at 12 second increments. The scale in arbitrary units extended from 0 to 36. When a readout of over 9 was collected, the symbol that would be written would be the nth letter of the English alphabet, where n equals signal intensity in arbitrary units minus 9. So, for example, the signal “E” represents 14 arbitrary units. The signal was likely an unmodulated, continuous microwave signal, which essentially means it would have carried very little information. Because of the way the information was processed, the exact location of the source of the radiation was lost. Additionally, the bandwidth of the signal was appreciably small, less than 10kHz. This makes many skeptical of its origin, as the signal seems artificial. The Jerry Ehman himself believes that the signal was from an alien civilization. Many scientists and groups have since tried to find this signal with no success.
As scientists became more serious about the prospect of interstellar communication and the public became more skeptical about “aliens”, funding became a bigger and bigger problem. Many of the SETI projects prior to the 1980s were funded by governments, their agencies, or universities. However, as funding became a concern, private donors became more and more important. META (Megachannel Extra-Terrestrial Assay) and BETA (Billion-channel Extraterrestrial Assay) were funded by private donors. In fact, Steven Spielberg was the largest donor for the BETA project. These two projects had an astounding capability to record signal from a very large range of frequencies at very high resolutions. MOP and Project Phoenix were also funded privately. Today, many SETI projects are done with funding collaboration between the traditional sources and private sources.
The most promising and current SETI experiments include SERENDIP, Breakthrough Listen, and FAST. SERENDIP’s approach to finding extraterrestrial signals is using data that is being collected for other reasons and installing new detectors in already functioning telescopes. This mission is extremely cost effective and practical in this way. Since its start in 1979, there have been about 400 signals that may be related to extraterrestrial intelligence.
Part 2: Overview of the Nature of the Signal
At 3:45am on Wednesday September 6, 2017 an anomalous signal was detected by SETI scientists at the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico. SETI astronomers were conducting routine measurements of celestial radio signals when they stumbled upon a strong, clear, and orderly signal emanating from the Sagittarius constellation. The signal does not match any known natural phenomena. Although periodic, the signal does not resemble the precise rhythm of pulsars. Instead, the signal is a series of strong pulses which increase in a perfect prime sequence. Essentially the signal consists of a repeating cycle of the first one-hundred prime numbers. Since there is nothing that connects prime numbers directly to any astronomical process, SETI scientists are at a loss to attribute this to a natural and non-intelligent source.
Scientists have spent the last few weeks tracing the origin of the signal. The signal has been pinned down to a specific star system within the Sagittarius constellation. The mostly likely star of origin is SWEEPS J175902.67−291153.5 (hereafter referred to as J-SWEEP). J-SWEEP is an average sized star with a number of known planets orbiting it. However, the star is a great distance away at approximately 27,710 light years. Thus, any signal to or from the star would take over 27,000 years to traverse that distance. The incompletion of the James Webb Telescope and other NASA projects has prevented astronomers from discovering more about the star and its surrounding planetary system. Thus, it is unknown whether any of the planets are suitable homes for organic and/or intelligent life.
The SETI team in Puerto Rico has been working around the clock to run further analyses on the signals. As per SETI protocol they have notified other SETI scientists around the world in New Mexico, Australia, South America, Europe, and elsewhere. Despite strict rules regarding the complete secrecy of these investigations a newspaper in Chile somehow obtained insider information and published an article claiming that the Chilean government has been communicating with aliens through the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. This story was initially brushed off as nonsense until SETI’s official public statement that they were investigating a “novel signal” was released. Despite these seemingly innocuous announcements the world media has rapidly picked up on the story creating massive public attention around the world. Many scientists have come forward insisting that there is no definitive evidence of alien contact, however the public is widely skeptical of the SETI scientists. Moreover, many in the developing world are not keen to believe the scientists who primarily hail from the West.
People have reacted in a number of different ways around the world. In the United States, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan a number of progressive groups have called on their governments to release all known information regarding the signal. This has particularly energized anti-Trump transparency activists who are using this as an opportunity to push their political agenda. Moreover, far-right religious groups have reacted in several different ways. Some have denounced these signals as fabrications of the scientific community which they believe are just as far-fetched as climate change or evolution. Other groups have strongly condemned what they call “the government’s exclusive ability to communicate with God.” Governments on the other hand have publicly called for calm while privately attempting to obtain more information out of the SETI scientists who are currently acting with very little government oversight. Governments do not currently have direct access to the signals.
In the developing world there have been mixed reactions. Religious groups have widely condemned the signals as dubious notions emanating from Western science. Others have incorporated these signals into their own religious world views. Some governments have even used the alien issue as a distraction against domestic issues. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, for example, has accused the United States of using this scientific discovery to cover up its “colonial activities” in Puerto Rico. Others have called for more representation among developing nations if this indeed becomes a conversation with another species. There have been calls to give the United Nations authority over the SETI operation and reduce American influence over the organization and the radio observatory in Puerto Rico.
Russia and China have largely echoed the concerns of the developing nations but for other reasons. They are concerned that the United States would have exclusive access to the technological benefits of any alien communication. This would have the potential to greatly disrupt the world balance of power in the favor of any country that could monopolize control over the signals. Moreover, as China seeks to expand its scientific capabilities it is in a position to develop alternative means of communication. It is unclear whether the United States and the other dominant members of SETI are willing to allow other nations to access communication with aliens.
Part Three: The Purpose of the Meeting
Despite repeated calls from scientists to not jump to any conclusions regarding the nature of the signal, mass panic is beginning to set in across the globe. Global financial markets have been characterized by massive fluctuations as uncertainty plagues economies throughout the planet. It has become typical for the New York Stock Exchange to see stock prices plummet and rise on the same day. The general trend, however, has been downwards prompting fears of a potential global recession.
On September 15, Prof. Stephen Hawking of Cambridge and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke made a public statement on BBC News calling for an emergency meeting of world leaders to address the ensuing crisis. Hawking described the necessity of developing a unified effort to investigate the signal and to coordinate any responses to the signal. Bernanke emphasized the importance of stabilizing the world economy while also ensuring political and social stability throughout the world. Given the gravity of these issues many of the world’s most powerful leaders have agreed to convene in Cambridge to coordinate collective human action in response to the signal and its repercussions on Earth.
The urgency of this meeting has become even more apparent after large scale protests erupted in the Chilean capital of Santiago on September 18. These protests seem to have been organized on social media with the widespread use of “fake news.” These articles have spread anger against the Chilean government for “collusion with extraterrestrials.” The situation is rapidly falling out of control in Chile and has the potential to spread elsewhere. Contact with another species could bring immense benefits to humankind or result in a global catastrophe. It will be up to those in the committee to determine the outcome.