A new instrument using infrared light detectors is searching the skies for extraterrestrial messages, according to a press release from the University of California, San Diego.
"Infrared light would be an excellent means of interstellar communication," said Shelley Wright, an assistant professor of physics at the university, according to the press release. Wright led the development of the new instrument while at the University of Toronto's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics.
A powerful infrared laser could emit pulses that would outshine a star, causing interstellar gas and dust transparent. Infrared signals also use less energy than visible light.
The idea was first suggested by Charles Townes, the late University of California, Berkeley Nobel Prize-winning scientist, in a paper published in 1961. Since then, scientists have scoured the sky for radio signals, until an instrument was created that could capture infrared signals.
"We had to wait," Wright said, according to the press release. "I spent eight years waiting and watching as new technology emerged."
Wright purchased the new detectors three years ago while at the Dunlap Institute and discovered that they work well enough to mount on a telescope. Jérome Maire, a Fellow at the Dunlap, "turned the screws," Wright said, referring to the hands-on development of NIROSETI for near-infrared optical SETI.
NIROSETI will not only search for signals, but will also record signals over time in order to analyze patterns. The range of NIROSETI is also exciting, according to the press release, because telescopes like Kepler have recently discovered potentially habitable planets outside our solar system.
NIROSETI is installed at the University of California's Lick Observatory and saw first light on March 15.
"The signals are so strong that we only need a small telescope to receive them," said SETI pioneer Frank Drake of the SETI Institute and UC Santa Cruz, according to the press release. "Smaller telescopes can offer more observational time, and that is good because we need to search many stars for a chance of success."
"There is only one downside: the extraterrestrials would need to be transmitting their signals in our direction," Drake said, according to the press release. "If we get a signal from someone who's aiming for us, it could mean there's altruism in the universe. I like that idea. If they want to be friendly, that's who we will find."
According to the press release, the project is funded by a private donor.
