<h2>A Long History of Mysterious Detections</h2>
Every so often, we hear about a <a href="https://futurism.com/strange-signal-from-sun-like-star-triggers-seti-investigation/">strange radio signal</a> winging its way Earthward from the cold, lifeless depths of outer space. Suddenly, bored news personnel around the world come alive and begin churning out sensational stories with lurid headlines promising that this is really it—our first contact with alien minds.
In fact, radio astronomers have a long history of detecting mysterious signals that just don’t seem to fit into their carefully ordered vision of the universe. For instance, pulsars were initially thought to be intelligent signals from beyond the solar system. When discovered by astronomers in Cambridge, England, the first pulsar signals were dubbed “LGM”—that’s “little green men,” in case you didn’t know.
And who could forget the famous <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/122409/what-was-the-wow-signal/">“Wow!” signal of 1977</a>, detected by astronomer Jerry Ehrman at Ohio State University’s “Big Ear” radio telescope. It was a 72-second anomalous transmission in the 1,420 MHz range—the natural frequency of neutral hydrogen emissions, <a href="http://www.iaragroup.org/_OLD/seti/pdf_IARA/cocconi.pdf">which physicists Philip Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi speculated</a> might be the medium of ET communications, given its cosmic ubiquity. The “Wow!” signal is still unexplained, and its like has never been seen again.
<figure style="width: 653px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/12/Wow_signal.jpg.653x0_q80_crop-smart.jpg" width="653" height="369" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The famous—or infamous—&#8221;Wow!&#8221; signal detected in 1977. Credit: Big Ear Radio Observatory and North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO)</figcaption></figure>
These instances were hardly the first—Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi, those indefatigable pioneers of technology and radio, claimed to have heard interplanetary transmissions in the early years of the 20th Century.
&#8220;The changes I noted were taking place periodically,&#8221; <a href="http://teslacollection.com/tesla_articles/1901/colliers/nikola_tesla/talking_with_the_planets">Tesla wrote of the &#8220;signals&#8221; he detected</a> during his work in Colorado Springs, &#8220;and with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause then known to me…The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.&#8221;
Alas, we are still awaiting that momentous day when the announcement of such a communication will be verified as true.
<h2>It Ain’t Aliens, Folks</h2>
The alien &#8220;signal&#8221; in question needn&#8217;t be restricted to radio or other electromagnetic transmissions encoding deliberate messages; it could be something as innocuous as the absence of a signal—repeated or arranged so as to arouse a suspicion of intelligent origin. For instance, <a href="https://futurism.com/more-research-into-the-alien-megastructure-star-fails-to-offer-answers/">there&#8217;s the controversy surrounding the mysterious &#8220;Tabby&#8217;s Star&#8221; (KIC 8462852)</a>, which has been amply reported in Futurism. <a href="http://www.astronomy.com/news/2016/10/seti-tunes-into-tabbys-star-with-radio-telescopes">Scuttlebutt has it</a> that Tabby&#8217;s Star might be surrounded by some sort of alien megastructure that&#8217;s causing the astonishing dips in the star&#8217;s bolometric luminosity—at least, that&#8217;s what some astronomers have suggested, with tongues at least partially planted in cheek.
<figure style="width: 768px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/12/illustration-of-a-dyson-swarm-superstructure.jpeg" width="768" height="576" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Artist&#8217;s rendering of what a Dyson Sphere alien megastructure might look like. Credit: Kevin Gill/Flickr</figcaption></figure>
But let’s not deceive ourselves. Invoking extraterrestrial intelligence to explain a mystery that, for the moment, confounds us to no end and monkeys up our cherished understanding of things is a bit of a deus ex machina—like the god swinging down from on high in the old Greek plays, happily arrived at just the right time to resolve all the unspliced threads of the plot.
The truth is, a mysterious signal is just that—and nothing more. To say it must be of extraterrestrial origin is to say precisely nothing at all; sure, it could be an alien signal, because intelligence could be responsible for virtually anything. In a universe that doubtless has many more surprises in store for us, it’s safer to search for alternative explanations.
As for Tabby&#8217;s Star? It&#8217;s probably just surrounded by a swarm of comets, asteroids, and planetary debris—that, or some equally prosaic and entirely dull explanation.
Now, if a giant alien mothership lands atop Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, pukes out some abducted WWII airmen, and beings playing strange musical tones, well that’s probably an extraterrestrial signal…

Hard Science

Throughout the history of humanity, we have received mysterious signals from unknown sources and our knee-jerk reactions tend to scream: ALIENS!
The "Wow! Signal" from 1977 – a 72-second anomalous transmission in the 1,420 MHz range – is just one such example, but has never been seen again. 

The Real Science Behind Supposed Alien Communications

Don't blame aliens.

Are we alone?
This question has been the subject of science fiction literature since H. G. Wells, and has popped up in films, video games, and more. But how close are we to truly finding life out there?
A panel of experts spoke on this topic during an event celebrating <a href="http://www.space.com/33944-star-trek-mission-new-york-50th-anniversary.html" target="_blank">Star Trek&#8217;s 50th anniversary</a> in NYC. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory&#8217;s Bobak Ferdowski, together with Dan Werthimer, University of California Berkeley&#8217;s <a href="http://www.space.com/33626-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence.html" target="_blank">Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence</a> (SETI) chief, led the discussion.
Let&#8217;s dive into their answers to two of the most intriguing questions from the discussion.
<figure style="width: 660px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="" style="width: 632px" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/09/star-trek-panel.jpg" alt="Credit: Marshall Honorof/Space.com" width="660" height="421" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Ferdowski and Werthimer. Credit: Marshall Honorof/Space.com</figcaption></figure>
<h2>If we do find life, will it be primitive or intelligent?</h2>
Intelligent life does not necessarily equate to technological life. For example, dolphins are intelligent, but you don&#8217;t see them building VR devices (that we know of, anyway). It will most like be some time before we find intelligent life. Primitive extraterrestrial life, on the other hand, could be discovered in the next 20 to 30 years, according to Ferdowski and Werthimer.
They pointed out the potential for life on Europa, one of Jupiter&#8217;s moons. &#8220;Europa [may be] completely covered in water. That&#8217;s great for primitive life, but if you want technology, you&#8217;ve got to have some land surfaces as well,&#8221; Werthimer explains. We may find primitive life there, &#8220;but it won&#8217;t necessarily evolve into something more complex than single-celled life&#8221; he points out.
If extraterrestrial technological life does exist, the beings may not be interested in contacting us. The panelists contrasted two popular theories — the <a href="http://www.seti.org/drakeequation" target="_blank">Drake Equation</a> and the <a href="http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/fermi-paradox" target="_blank">Fermi Paradox</a>. The former posits that intelligent life should be a fairly common occurrence in the universe. The latter questions why alien life, if it was indeed possible, is not observable in a universe teeming with it.
The panelists answered by assuming an extraterrestrial version of Star Trek&#8217;s &#8220;Prime Directive:&#8221; this technological life may be prohibited to mingle with less advance cultures. Or maybe some just aren&#8217;t explorers by nature.
<h2>Will extraterrestrial life resemble humanity?</h2>
&#8220;If it&#8217;s exactly the same as us, that probably doesn&#8217;t mean there were two independent origins of life,&#8221; says Ferdowski.  If extraterrestrial life does exist, and resembles human beings in basic biology, that could prove there was a common precursor of life in the cosmos, <a href="http://www.space.com/811-panspermia.html" target="_blank">a theory known as panspermia</a>.
Werthimer concluded:
<blockquote>&#8220;It&#8217;s a profound question either way [&#8230;] If we find out we&#8217;re alone, that means we&#8217;d better take incredibly good care of the precious life here on Earth.&#8221;</blockquote>
The panelists may not have come to a definitive answer, but they did leave us a lot to consider when we look at our own galactic existence.

Off World

NASA and SETI experts discussed the question of life outside our own planet during an event celebrating Star Trek. Is extraterrestrial life possible? If so, what form will it take and how close are we to finding it?

Will We Ever Find Alien Life? NASA and SETI Just Weighed in

Will we ever phone E.T.?

<h2>Red Dwarf</h2>
The world&#8217;s most renowned scientists all acknowledge that <a href="https://futurism.com/astrophysicist-neil-degrasse-tyson-explains-the-importance-of-finding-alien-life/">the search for alien life is important</a>, but unfortunately, our quest for life beyond Earth has been long, arduous, and (so far) fruitless. It has also been constricted along several assumptions: Life is most likely found around a star similar to the Sun, with an orbital distance similar to Earth&#8217;s, and it is sending out signals similar to our own.
But now, scientists are loosening one of those assumptions.
A <a href="http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/press-release/new-search-signals-20000-star-systems-begins">press release</a> from SETI reveals that it is studying an additional 20,000 stars. But not stars like the Sun. No, SETI will be studying red dwarf stars, previously dismissed as incapable of harboring life.
The previous assessment was because of the argument that few planets were likely to be found in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star, which is far narrower than for brighter stars like the Sun.
Any worlds that were in this zone would be orbiting so close to their suns that they would be tidally locked – with one hemisphere perpetually facing the star. It was assumed that this would produce a planet that was intolerably hot on one side and brutally cold on the other.
But new research overturns these disadvantages and paints red dwarf suns as being conducive to life.
<figure style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/04/maxresdefault-2.jpg"><img style="width: 800px;" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/04/maxresdefault-2.jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image credit: NASA</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Overturning assumptions</h2>
If these worlds have huge bodies of water, and <a href="http://m.phys.org/news/2014-08-red-dwarf-stars-alien-life.html">research suggest they do</a>, heat would be transported from the lit side to the dark, and a significant fraction of the planet would be habitable
Also, red dwarfs burn for a period of time that’s greater than the current age of the universe: Every red dwarf ever born is still shining today&#8230;and will continue to shine for ages hance. This means that these older solar systems have had more time to produce intelligent species.
In addition, exoplanet data suggests that somewhere between one sixth and one half of red dwarf stars have planets in their habitable zones, a percentage comparable to, and possibly greater than, that of Sun-like stars.

A press release from SETI reveals that it is studying an additional 20,000 stars. But not stars like the Sun; rather, we're looking at places previously dismissed as incapable of harboring life.

/Et

Hard Science

The Real Science Behind Supposed Alien Communications

Off World

Will We Ever Find Alien Life? NASA and SETI Just Weighed in

Off World

SETI is Expanding its Search for Sentient Alien Life

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