Scientists plan to send a message to Proxima b
In order to search for contact with alien civilizations, the Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (METI) organization was established in San Francisco. The association is to take care of sending messages towards discovered exoplanets – planets outside the solar system. The head of METI was Douglas Vakoch, który previously worked on the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project. SETI is the big brother of METI. The project was founded in 1959 and its goal is to search for extraterrestrial civilizations by analyzing signalóin radio and light.
Why Proxima b? Recently there has been a lot of buzz about this planet. Proxima Centauri b, for that is the planet’s full name, was discovered in August this year. It orbits wokół star Proxima Centauri – A red dwarf four light years away from Earth. It is located in the so-called. ecosphere, i.e., in orbit, in which theóThe area may have conditions conducive to the emergence of life as we know it. The most essential element of the ecosphere is the presence of liquid water.
Further observations of Proxima b have revealed that it is a rocky planet with a mass close to that of Earth’s. There is a high probability that liquid water is present there. This has given rise to speculation about the possibility of the existence of intelligent life there.
METI to make contact intends to build or buy a powerful transmitter. There are also plans to restore Project Cyclops, created by NASA in the 1970s. last century. It assumed the creation of a network of radio telescopesów of high power to look for signalsóIn intelligent life at a distance of up to 1,000 light years.
METI’s plan is to send a strong, repeating signal toward exoplanetsów containing a specific message. Signals are expected to be sent for months or even years.
"It is looking for troubleów"
The organization currently lacks funding for its operations. Scientists in it estimate that the cost of the annual operation of the program will oscillate around one million dollarsów. The researchers intend to raise funds on one of the crowdfunding platforms, that is, from the international community interested in the project.
Not everyone believes that sending such signalsów is a good idea. Recently, in an article published on „Nature Physics”, Physicist Mark Buchanan stated that it is looking for troubleów. Of similar opinion is the well-known astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, whoóry believes that such activity is too risky. According to him, we may come across a civilization much more advanced than us, whichóra „may have the same opinion of us that we have of bacteria”.
