Humans once again received cosmic signals, radio signals from 4.6 light years. Should I reply?

In this universe, is there a civilization similar to or higher than human beings? Or, even if there is non-intelligent life.

Astronomer Frank Drake once put forward an equation to calculate the number of alien intelligent civilizations that may come into contact with us in the Milky Way. This equation is called Drake equation, and according to the estimation of Drake equation, there may be tens of thousands of intelligent civilizations in our Milky Way alone.

But if so, why have they never touched humans or visited the earth? Some people may say that the distance between galaxies is too far, which makes it impossible for one civilization to break the barrier of distance and contact with another civilization, but this is only limited to our understanding in the background of science and technology, just as it is impossible for humans hundreds of years ago to think that today's humans can reach the other side of the earth in more than ten hours, or even leave the earth and land on the moon.

Is it true that the Milky Way, which was formed in10 billion years ago, has never formed a super civilization with advanced technology?

There are also some conspiracy theories that the secret contact between human beings and alien civilizations has a long history. For example, the famous 5 1 area contains evidence of the existence of aliens and so on. It is with the help of the professor of alien civilization that human science and technology have advanced by leaps and bounds for a hundred years, and in exchange, human beings have signed a secret treaty with aliens.

Another possibility is that there are no aliens in this universe, only humans. However, compared with the existence of alien life, it would be terrible if one day humans finally find that there is no alien civilization in the whole universe, that humans are the only life in this universe, or that alien civilization is also human.

So today, let's put aside these two statements and take a look at the recent event that human beings are closest to discovering alien civilization, a "greeting message" from 4.2 light years away.

Mysterious electrical signals from the earth's "neighbors"

As we all know, when our astronauts leave the atmosphere and enter the universe, they communicate with the earth through radio waves, and load the information they need to send on the radio waves and send it out. When the signal reaches the receiving end on the earth, the change of electromagnetic field caused by radio waves will lead to the change of current in the conductor, and then information can be extracted from the change of current.

So if humans want to send information to other civilizations that may exist in the universe, or want to send information to humans, they can only send their own information through radio waves. If the other party captures this information, it may be possible to decipher the content of the information and know the direction in which the information is sent.

Humans have done such things.

1974, scientists used the arecibo radio telescope to send an "Arecibo message" to the globular cluster M 13, which is 25,000 light years away from the earth, marking the position of the solar system and information about the earth and human beings. Of course, it is still too early to reach M 13, but if this news is captured by other alien civilizations halfway, then they will know about the solar system, the earth and human beings.

Similar to "Arecibo Information", there is also a gold disk that records the information of the earth and human beings on the traveler 1 who is about to leave the solar system.

Many people once thought that it was foolish to disclose the position of the earth in the universe because we didn't know what would catch them.

But in fact, human beings not only sent out signals, but also received a lot of radio wave information from the universe. The last time was in June 2020.

Scientists who broke through the monitoring project captured a radio signal from proxima centauri, 4.2 light years away from the Earth.

What is a breakthrough listening project?

The Breakthrough Listening Project is a large-scale search for extraterrestrial intelligent life sponsored by Russian billionaire yuri milner and initiated by astronomer stephen hawking. Use the world's most powerful telescope to "monitor" the universe to search for signals from about 6.5438+million stars, so as to find evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life.

So, in June, 2020, researchers of Breakthrough Listening Project first observed whether there were signs of flare in proxima centauri, which is 4.6 light years away from the Earth, using the Australian Parkes Radio Telescope, and tried to study how the flare affected the planets in proxima centauri.

Moreover, these observations are also used to find any signal (SETI) that may be sent by extraterrestrial intelligent life.

At the end of June 5438+ 10, 2020, when the project researchers began to routinely screen the data, they came across a strange secret radio signal-BLC1(planned to be named in the published paper).

This signal is very similar to the "WOW" signal captured by 1977 at a distance of 200 light years from the solar system.

Is the signal from an alien civilization?

So, the captured signal must prove that it was sent by aliens? It can't come from a celestial body? Such as pulsars, magnetars, black holes and supernovae? It's really impossible, because if it's a celestial launch, such as a superstar explosion, the signal generated will not be concentrated in one frequency, but will have a wide range in the spectrum. The signal captured this time and the signal captured by 1977 are single frequency, narrow-frequency radio signals, and can only be artificially launched or artificial equipment, such as the area where satellites or spaceships are launched. However, human beings

So, perhaps, it was sent by an alien civilization. They may be looking for other civilizations in the universe just like human beings. After all, human beings have done a lot of things like sending signals to the universe.

Moreover, compared with the recent times of mankind, such as the WOW signal we just mentioned, five hours of powerful radio waves were received in 20 17 years, and there were rumors of distress that were unknown 50,000 light-years away, this time it is the most likely to prove the existence of alien civilization.

The first reason is that, compared with the previous distance of several hundred light-years or even tens of thousands of light-years, the signal found this time comes from proxima centauri Centauri, which is 4.6 light-years away from the Earth, and the distance is closer. Even if scientists try to reply, if intelligent life like ours really exists there and the signal is indeed sent by them, then both sides can really confirm each other's existence. At least, in our lifetime, we may really know the existence of alien civilization.

Second, as early as 20 16, scientists actually discovered that there is an earth-like planet in proxima centauri, which is 17% larger than the earth. It is called Super Earth or B (neighboring star B, its period of revolution is 1 1.2 days, and its surface temperature ranges from -50 to -30 degrees Celsius.

Therefore, on the basis of the initial discovery of this earth-like planet and the radio signals received from here this time, scientists are more convinced that there is probably an intelligent civilization similar to ours on this planet.

However, some people have put forward opposing views. Although there is no way to explain whether the received signal is from the civilization there, the research on proxima centauri shows that the situation of this super-Earth is not optimistic, because its star proxima centauri is an active red dwarf, with a diameter of only 15% and a surface temperature of 3000K, which is only half that of our sun. Moreover, in 20 16 and 20 19, scientists observed that strong high-energy flares broke out in proxima centauri, and the energy emitted by the flares was fatal to nearby planets.

And this super earth is actually very close to the star, so there can be no life, because it can't stand the super radiation from the star flare, so the neighboring star B can only be called super Mars at most, and it can't be as livable as the earth.

Unless, of course, their technology is advanced enough to protect themselves.

So up to now, the debate between the two sides has not reached a definite result. There may be life in the livable zone, and the received radio signal can't prove that it does exist, unless we try to reply to it, so as to confirm whether this signal is sent by the intelligent civilization there.

However, no one knows whether the other party is an armed robber. We can imagine what would happen if man found a civilization weaker than himself on a planet he could reach. Friendly exchanges help them upgrade their technology, or ruthlessly plunder their resources and enslave them?

Welcome to discuss in the comments section. Ok, that's all for this program. See you next time.