Aussie space trek in 10 mln stars yet to find alien technology trace

SYDNEY - In the latest attempt to prove humans are not alone in the universe, Australian astronomers scanned 10 million stars with a specially designed telescope for any possible signals emitted by alien civilizations, and despite the unprecedented effort were unable to find any trace.

Published on Tuesday, the research used the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in the state of Western Australia, which can observe millions of stars simultaneously, and targeted the Vela constellation, which includes at least 10 million stars.

What astronomers were hoping to find was 'technosignatures', a radio emission at a frequency similar to the ones emitted by electronic devices, like mobile phones, TV and FM radio etc.

"We observed the sky around the constellation of Vela for 17 hours, looking more than 100 times broader and deeper than ever before," co-researcher, Dr. Chenoa Tremblay from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) said.

"With this dataset, we found no technosignatures, no sign of intelligent life."

Another co-researcher, Prof. Steven Tingay, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said the temporary drawback won't deter them from searching for alien civilizations in the future as they will be equipped with even more powerful telescope for the purpose, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

"Due to the increased sensitivity, the SKA low-frequency telescope to be built in Western Australia will be capable of detecting Earth-like radio signals from relatively nearby planetary systems," Tingay said.

"With the SKA, we'll be able to survey billions of star systems, seeking technosignatures in an astronomical ocean of other worlds."