Australian Murchison Widefield Array telescope searched a vast sky region for low-frequency extraterrestrial radio signals—but found none.
The SETI program has long used radio telescopes to hunt for signs of extraterrestrial civilizations. In a prior Breakthrough Listen effort, astronomers employed the Green Bank Observatory in the USA and Parkes Observatory in Australia to scan 1,327 stars within 160 light-years for low-frequency techno-signatures. The result: no evidence of alien activity.
Now, researchers turned to the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Australia to examine the same techno-signatures around more than 10 million stellar sources in the Veil Nebula region, which hosts at least six confirmed exoplanets—and likely many more.
Sadly (or reassuringly), no signs of intelligent life emerged in this sky patch—at least not in the targeted frequencies.
Lead investigators Chenoa Tremblay and Steven Tingay from Curtin University remain optimistic. While 10 million stars sounds immense, it's a mere fraction of the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars.
Alien signals might also be too distant to detect. Humanity's radio broadcasts, starting around 1895, have traveled just over 100 light-years at most.
Moreover, radio waves weaken with distance per the inverse square law, blending into cosmic noise beyond 100 light-years.
These searches assume extraterrestrial tech mirrors ours; advanced civilizations might use entirely different communication methods.
Looking ahead, astronomers plan to leverage the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), with initial deployment in South Africa and Australia. The MWA forms its foundational precursor.
Phase 1 commissioning is set for 2024, with Phase 2 in the 2030s. SKA aims to probe nearby solar systems for potential extraterrestrial signals.
