"China Sky Eye" found a suspected signal of abroad. Does the "three -body people" really exist?

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There may be two reasons for human civilization signals.

The first is that monitoring has not yet covered a wide enough sky

Second, the sensitivity of the equipment is not enough to detect the alien "broadcast"

Recently, Zhang Tongjie, a professor at the Department of Astronomical Department of Beijing Normal University and chief scientist at Overseas Land Civilization Search, revealed to the media that his team used "China Sky Eye" to discover several cases of "technical traces and overseas civilization candidate signals from outside the earth". Zhang Tongjie pointed out that this is a few narrow -band electromagnetic signals that were different from the past, and the team is currently in a hurry to further identify and investigate.

Known as the "China Eye Eye", the 500 -meter -diameter spherical spherical spherical radio telescope (FAST) officially launched the outreach civilization search work in September 2020. This is one of FAST's five major scientific goals. In 2020, when the observation data processing of Fast 2019, Zhang Tongjie's team discovered the suspicious signal of two groups of outdoor civilization. In 2022, the team discovered a suspicious signal from the target observation data of the solar system.

"Fast's latest suspicious signals are likely to come from Earth, not aliens." Dan Wilheimer, chief scientist of the Department of Outside Civilization Research Center of the University of California, told China News Weekly. Verheimer began to work in "Seti" (SETI) in 1979. He is one of the most authoritative Seti researchers in the world and an American partner of Zhang Tongjie's team. Zhang Tongjie's team also said that suspicious signals are very likely to be a certain kind of radio interference.

Verheimer pointed out that so far, all the "suspected signals" detected by humans are issued by "our own civilization", not "another civilization." So, how far is humans discovering aliens?

On January 8, 2020, the "China Eye" during the maintenance period. Picture/Xinhua

Why do you confuse human signals and alien signals?

Where does the suspicious signals come from?

Verheimer explained that these signals may come from mobile phones, television, radar, satellites, and electronic equipment and computers near the observatory, which are accepted by FAST in the form of wireless radio waves. Because it is difficult for humans to distinguish between them and alien signals, As a result, interference is brought to observation. "Although the experiments on FAST have just begun, they are still learning how to deal with interference signals and analyze data, but before that, I have more than 20 years of experience, such as using Puerto Rico's Ares' Ares Boto Telescope to observe, and I received it. After many signals that are very close to this time, they are always proved to be a kind of radio interference. "

Why do we always confuse human signals and alien signals? In various external civilization search plans, radio signals with specific frequencies through radio telescopes have always been the first choice for Seti researchers. This is because in various forms of electromagnetic radiation in the universe, the "crossing" ability of radio waves is the strongest, and it can almost reduce information loss as much as possible through the vast universe. This is the ideal "signal" received by humans.

In 1960, SETI's pioneer Frank Drake conducted the first human radio signal search for external civilization on the Greenbanic National Radion Observatory, and Drake called it the "Ozma Plan". From April to July 1960, there were 6 hours a day, and Drake would adjust the wireless receiver of the Observatory to 1420 MHz (MMH) frequency. He believes that this may be the "hello" of aliens universal. frequency.

The frequency of 1420 MHz is a search object that all SETI personnel will focus on, because this is the transmission frequency of hydrogen atoms, and when a hydrogen atom is combined with a hydroxyl group, the water is born. This is the original form of life that humans know the original. The most important element. 1720 MHz is the transmitting frequency of hydroxyl groups. Therefore, between hydrogen and hydroxyl, the frequency range from 1420 to 1720 MHz is called the "water hole" of the universe, which is considered by the National Aeronautical Aviation Administration (NASA) that may be gathered in life. The place.

At present, the main search range of the alien signal of the radio telescope is from the "microwave window" of 1000-10000 MHz. The signal of this "window" is most easily recognized and penetrated. Seti researchers further focused on "narrowband signals" with frequency bandwidth below hundreds of Hertz. Verheimer explained that the signal issued by out -of -outside civilization is not necessarily narrow belt. Human beings are looking for narrowband signals, just because it is easier to identify the "non -natural" signal. Stars, pulse stars, stars, and the turbulent and thin interstellar gases in the Milky Way are all issued by broadband signals. If you choose a broadband signal to search, it will be difficult for us natural phenomenon.

It is known that the minimum frequency of the natural sources can be issued by about 500 Hz. Researchers believe that any signal with a bandwidth of less than 300Hz should be made of "non -natural". "But unfortunately, humans themselves will also create a large number of narrowband signals, which makes SETI search more difficult. This is the problem of RF interference that has been troubled for many years." Verheimer said.

For Fast, it is more difficult to solve this problem. Verheimer pointed out that the advantage of Fast is that the sensitivity is higher than any existing radio telescope, and it is easier to capture a very weak signal in the distance, but the other side of the coin is that this will also bring greater interference. Before Fast was put into use, the world's most sensitive external civilization observation equipment was the American Aresbo telescope that collapsed due to the out of control of the structure in December 2020. According to the research of Li Yan, the national observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the researcher of the National Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, FAST's comprehensive sensitivity is 10 times higher than that of Alicebo. It has the only 300 -meter -class antenna in the world. The instantaneous sensitivity exceeds one or more other antennas, and FAST also has higher measurement accuracy and larger sky coverage.

Zhang Tongjie and others pointed out in the papers published in April 2020 in the papers "Fast Telescope Based on Fast Telescope" pointed out that the criteria for FAST screening are "signal bandwidth less than 500Hz, which lasts less than 100 for the suspicious candidate signal from aliens. second". Before the screening, Fast will use the "Nebula" algorithm program to remove the "narrow belt" interference signal. The main way is to investigate whether the signal continues to appear in multiple heavenly areas. The narrowband signal that truly comes from civilization from outdoor civilization should only appear only in the fixed area of ​​the sky. Essence At the same time, signals that appear in many days, the high probability is the interference signal from the earth, which will be removed by the program. However, the results show that after the algorithm is screened, a small part of the interference signal will still be left. "So far, no algorithm can completely remove noise interference."

Verheimer's believe that a more fundamental solution is to move the radio telescope from the earth to the back of the moon, which will avoid radio pollution on the earth. Another method is to use two radio telescopes to test at the same time. For example, one in Guizhou, one in Shanghai, and two telescopes are more than a thousand miles away. , Or in a more distant place, "just like the triangle positioning."

There are two main strategies in the search of outside civilization, one is a wider sky survey, namely the sky patrol observation, and the large sky mirror is used to find a strong signal that may come from any direction. The other is more targeted. , Point the telescope to the specified star area that may exist, stay here for a long time, capture weaker signals. Zhang Tongjie pointed out in the paper that one of Fast's future goals is to obtain some good candidate target signals through 1 to 2 years of celestial visits, and subsequent observations of candidate goals to further test the credibility and repetitive candidate goals.

In Verheimer's view, Fast is very sensitive and can cover the sky in a larger range. In the next 5 to 10 years, human beings will use this aesthetic telescope to conduct large -scale sky surveys. This requires huge computing power. Now it can analyze about 20 billion signals per second, but it is not enough. "Millions of stars let us look up, we just started." Verheimer said.

"Are we lonely in the universe?"

On September 19, 1959, two years after the launch of the first artificial satellite, physicist Philip Morrison and Josepe Kokoni published a paper "Looking for StarCap" in "Nature". For the first time, the universe was analyzed for the first time The rays of various frequencies are proposed that radio waves can be used for interstellar communication. In 1961, Drake proposed the famous "Drake equation" in the first more serious Seti conference held by Green Banker, hoping to calculate through the formula: how much existence in the Milky Way can be detected by humans to detect human beings. Alien civilization (n). Drake himself estimates N 100,000, but many scientists have doubts about it.

There have been many suspected "n = 1" in history. Most of them have been proven to be oolong, and others have no answers so far. The most famous of which was the "wow!" Signal received on August 15, 1977. On this day, the "Big Ear" telescope of Ohio State University detected a set of signals of "Very similar to out -of -earth civilization" from the northwest direction of the M55 spherical star group. Atomic transmission frequency is 1420 mHz. On the day of the observer, Jerry Eman, marked the strength value of the signal on the data record paper, and couldn't help writing "WOW!". Unfortunately, astronomers later tried many times on different telescopes, and never searched duplicate signals in the same direction. Until now, "WOW!" Is still the strongest candidate in all the "suspicious signals" found.

In November 1984, the Seti Institute of Non -profit Science Institutions was established. From 1995 to 2004, the Institute launched the most comprehensive external civilization search project in the world at that time- "Phoenix Plan". Banker's National Observatory telescope and the American Aresipo telescope observe a total of 800 star systems within 200 light years from Earth. Since 2007, SETI has studied all a stronger "listening" device -Allen Wangyuan Mirror Array. This is the first radio telescope specially designed for the search for outbound civilization. It is quietly located deep in the Kaskat Mountains north of San Francisco, and it is arranged on the ground by 42 radio antennas on the ground. The array type design allows searching for multiple stars at the same time, which increases the search speed by at least 100 times. The Seti Institute predicts that Allen Telescope allows humans to expand the search range to 1 million stars in the next two decades. At present, the research institute cooperates with NASA, and thousands of candidate "livable" planets discovered by the Cairple Telescope have become the key observation objects of the Allen telescope array. In July 2015, NASA discovered an "Cair Popler-4525B" on the so far-shaped "closest to the earth" outside the solar system. However, the Seti Institute used Allen Telescope to observe the "cousin" of the earth without any results. At present, after the system of the Allen telescope receiver is updated, the signal can be covered to 1000 MHz to 15000 MHz.

What makes humans puzzled is why there have been no earth civilization for so many years? In 1950, Eriko Fermi, an Italian American physicist, asked the question that human civilization wanted to answer for thousands of years: "Are we lonely in the universe?" In 1973, Massachusetts Institute of Technology astronomers John Ball made an explanation: just like humans observing animals in the zoo, aliens may also be silently observing humans. They deliberately avoided contact with humans and separated the human civilization circle, just like the "nature reserve" in the universe, or just to "monitor" humans. This is the famous "zoo hypothesis".

In 2016, Duncan Fugen, a celestial physicist at the University of St. Andrews University in the United Kingdom, questioned the hypothesis. He believes that the premise of the hypothesis is that a variety of alien civilizations must sign an agreement to establish a unified "Galaxy Club", otherwise, otherwise Only one "different political opinion" will be broken without contact. This sounds like a way of thinking in human society. In fact, all speculations are based on what kind of signals may be issued by alien civilization.

In Verheimer's view, the best SETI strategy is multiple search. The richer wavelength and signal types are detected as possible, such as laser and infrared, not just radio. He said that so far, the SETI study conducted by humans has only detected the "a small part" of radio spectrum, and a small number of studies have paid attention to infrared wavelengths. Therefore, the Earth people are still exploring in the "shallow place", and even in the detected signals, there may be a message of external civilization.

In 2017, the SETI Institute launched a new plan "Laser Seti", focusing on capturing the "fast -flashing laser signal" that may have been ignored before. Compared with radio, laser communication advantages can "wrap" more energy. In principle, the information transmitted by laser per second is 50 times that of radio. The first two telescopes have been completed and are located in Sonoma County and Hawaii Maoyi Island in California. During the observation, the two telescopes aimed at the same area of ​​the sky at different angles at different angles, and scanned 150 degrees per second more than a thousand times. Waiting for all telescopes to start operation, the plan will be able to monitor about half of the night sky in the Western Hemisphere and achieve real continuous observations. "All -day" has always been the goal pursued by Seti researchers.

SETI Institute Senior Astronomer Sais Scstak pointed out to China News Weekly that there may be two reasons for human civilization signals: one is that the monitoring has not covered a wide enough sky; the other is that the sensitivity of the equipment is also the same. Not enough to detect alien "broadcast".

Should we "say hello" to the aliens?

In May 2022, the U.S. Congress held the first UFO hearing in more than half a century. At the meeting, officials of the Pentagon showed several difficult images: the spherical objects shot from the FA-18 fighter windows; The green triangle is moving in the air. NASA subsequently announced that it would set up a special UFO research team. This was the first time that it had been involved in unknown flight objects. Previously, such studies were reprimanded by most scientists as "not real science."

For the "zoo hypothesis", many astronomers are shuddering for the "surveillance" behind them. When human began to "listen" the universe, whether to send signals to aliens has always been the center of scientists' argument. At present, the mainstream view is negative. The American celestial biologist Douglas Vokkch is different. He believes that if you want to make the administrator of the "Galaxy Zoo" appear, humans can introduce themselves to the aliens by sending strong and information -rich radio signals to the nearby stars. "They may respond to us." "They are outside, and we already know that we are here. In order to enter the Galaxy Club, we must submit an application, maybe even pay a little bit." Wawakh founded an organization called Meti International in 2015 to study how to give outside to the outside world. Star people send more "appropriate" information. Prior to this, Wawakh worked at the Seti Institute for 16 years and served as the director of interstellar information.

In contrast to the "active search faction", most scientists believe that active "greeting" will make the earth face the "exposure risk". In September 2015, at the launching meeting of the "Breakthrough Listening" project searching for aliens, one of the sponsor, Stephen Hawking, a cosmologist at Cambridge University, clearly warned that do not "yell" to the universe because The civilization of reading human information may be "hundreds of millions of years earlier", and they will be stronger. He believes that these advanced alien civilizations may have the same characteristics of violence, aggression and ethnic extinction as humans. This is the story described in "Three Body".

As early as 1974, the Arcobo telescope sent the first radio information of human beings. The destination was the ball -shaped star group M13 other than 25,000 light years. The sending time was not more than three minutes. go out. Since then, the "active search faction" scientists have been studying how to convey the most about human society and species with the least information.

In 2017, Meti launched a duplicate signal to Lutan Star, 12 light years away, which is the star system closest to the earth, including a potential "livable planet". Compared with "Aresbo Image", this information is more complicated, including many basic mathematics, physics concepts, and some scientific knowledge, including telling aliens why 1+1 = 2, explaining how the radio interest reads and how to read and how to read and how to read the wireless telecommunications interest and how to read and how to read wireless telecommunications and how to read and how to read wireless telecommunications and how to read and how to read wireless telecommunications and how to read and how to read wireless telecommunications and how to read and how to read wireless electrical information and What is the concept of human time. Wawakh is optimistic that if everything goes well, humans can receive a reply from aliens before 2042. Article 2 information will be sent on October 4, 2022. This time the goal is the star TRAPPIST-1 from the earth 39 light years. Trappist-1 will receive a richer "package": the details of the element cycle table, the composition of the atom, and the British Jazz Rock Band The Comet is Coming. The song and Russian musician Edward Algeev's "Essay to the Messenger of God: The Beauty of the Earth".

In a "external communication" in 1977, the "golden records" equipped with two spaceships were brought together the essence of human civilization: including 115 images, and the image includes solar spectrum, Mercury, Mars, human anatomy, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, and fetus, and fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, and fetus, and fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetus, fetal, fetus, and fetus, and fetuses, fetuses, fetuses, and fetuses. Men and women's relationship maps, internal structures of the earth, mainland drift, etc. The sounds collected include waves, wind, and thunder sounds, the singing of humpback whales, 55 kinds of human ancient and modern languages, "Hello", Chinese Wu language , Bach, Beethoven, Mozart's music selection.

Different from scientists imagined, more and more studies have shown that ordinary public is not so hostile to aliens, and the number of people who believe that "alien civilization does exist" increased year by year. The results of the Gallop poll showed that from 1966 to 1987, I believe that the number of alien civilizations accounted for 34 % to 50 %. In 1997, a survey at the Institute of Public Opinion of Marister showed that 86 % of the respondents believed that the Milky Way neighbors were friendly, not enemies. By July 2021, a latest survey released by Pew polls institutions shows that 51 % of Americans believe that "UFO" may come from alien smart life, and about 87 % of the respondents say that UFO is fundamentally fundamental It will not pose a security threat to the United States.

The United States' research on UFO will begin this fall, which will take 9 months, and it is expected to spend $ 100,000. The person in charge of the group is David Spegel, a celestial physicist in the United States. He pointed out that he must deal with such problems with a "humble attitude". We don't know what the universe is composed of 95 %. "He said.

Verheimer pointed out that UFO research and SETI research are different. There is no evidence that UFO comes from alien civilization, and few scientists believe that the earth has been visited by aliens. Aircraft or atmospheric phenomena, "But continuing to study is always beneficial, we may find some interesting things."

Albert Harrison, a professor of psychology at the University of California Davis, pointed out in the article "Fear, Confucian, calm, and joy: Humans' response to alien civilization" that so far, human responses to foreign stars are scientific, imagined, and Media hybrid mixture. Around the millennium, human beings believed that alien civilization was wise, kind and friendly, and alien civilization was a "utopian society". There was no war, death and disease, which could help humans stop nuclear tests. In the era of artificial intelligence, some people think that alien life exists in computer circuits and can "live" anywhere in 0 and 1. If one day, humans really discover the signal of alien civilization, should we answer?

In 1989, the Academy of International Astronautics approved a "SETI Detection Agreement". According to the agreement, after the alien signal was found, any country, institutions, or individuals banned the alien civilization without reaching a global consensus on the content of the information. Essence But the agreement does not have legal effect. Verheimer pointed out that this agreement is only the first step. The United Nations is best to allow all countries to pass such a promise before discovering the signal, because it is more difficult to reach an agreement after detecting the signal. "Whether the decision to answer should be determined by everyone and everyone on the planet. This is a question of all mankind." Verheimer said.

Send 2022.7.4 Total Issue 1050 "China News Weekly" magazine

Magazine title: How far is we discovering aliens?

Reporter: [email protected])

Edit: Du Wei

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