As far as I know SETI, the search for intelligent life in outer space, has been going for about 60 years without success.
According to a link in Amateur Radio Weekly there may be another technique. If we find intelligent life "out there" it could/should have a profound effect on life on Earth.
Excuse the journalism in the link!
We may have already had positive detections. There is a signal from the Centuri system detected by the Parkes radio telescope (great place to visit by the way) that was originally put down to interference from earth that has recently been shown to have originated in the Centuri system. The signal is narrowband with what looks like modulation, not characteristics of natural signals. Second possibility is a distant star which contains high number elements that stars don't possess until they die. It's been proposed that this could be the result of a civilisation using it's star to dump atomic waste. So far as I am aware no one has an alternative explanation at present. There are also other examples.
ReplyDeleteA problem is that because it will have such a huge impact very high standards are being placed on the level of proof required. Such high levels of proof are difficult to obtain with our current technology.