BRENT: With the mission surrounded by much excitement, NASA’s space telescope ventured to detect signs of intelligent life from the star KIC 8462852. Unfortunately, no signal is picked up after first pass.
The star – also known as Tabby’s star – drew attention last October when it showed proof of periodic dimming by 20 percent or more. Theory had it that the unusual dimming could be caused by alien megastructures orbiting around the star.
Examples of large-scale astroengineering ventures such as this one could be a Dyson swarm of solar panels for harnessing wide-scale energy, as well as artificial space habitats and planet-size occulting objects for offering stable signal to other galactic residents.
Researchers at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, California, then aimed their Allen Telescope Array (ATA) for any extraterrestrial activity – no radio signal of which was received, sadly.
The ATA, consisting of 42 six-meter radio antennae, was aimed at the star for two weeks and tuned in to two specific radio signals: a narrow-band 1 Hz bandwidth as a “hailing signal” or alien life announcing its presence, and broad-band signals signifying presence through leaking beamed propulsion in the star system.
According to SETI’s Nov. 5 statement, data analysis showed no clear proof of either signal types between frequencies 1 and 10 GHz.
