Countries are stepping up efforts to search for extraterrestrial life

In January, India joined a scientific project group of more than a dozen countries building the largest telescope in human history. With a combination of radio astronomy and artificial intelligence (AI), this telescope will help science study the birth and disappearance of the first stars, or search for planets with life beyond Earth. land.

The 2.2 billion euro ($2.4 billion) astronomical observatory (SKAO) is an ambitious project with the participation of 16 countries including: South Africa, Australia, England, Canada, China , France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The SKAO telescope project is attracting the attention of many countries. Photo: RT

India has invested Rs 12.5 billion ($150 million) in a facility in Pune, 156km east of Mumbai, a city specializing in radio astronomy research activities. This facility is expected to soon become a data center with supercomputers to process the huge amount of scientific data obtained from the telescope.

With the help of radio interferometers, astronomers can combine signals from multiple antennas or telescopes to produce images that are sharper and brighter than those obtained from a single dish. Single antenna. This technology will help scan wider areas of the sky through the radio telescope's antenna dish, which has a range spanning many kilometers.

Spanning the two continents of South Africa and Western Australia, the global observatory draws on contributions from thousands of scientists and engineers worldwide to develop cutting-edge technologies. They will use SKAO to record space data for 1.5 million laptops each year.

'The plan is to begin implementing AI training to decode scientific information this year with about two petabytes of data collected and stored by the giant radio telescope. Through this plan, we want to demonstrate that India is ready to actively participate in humanity's common effort in the search for extraterrestrial life' – Professor Yashwant Gupta, Director of the Physics Center National Radio Astronomy Administration (NCRA) told RT.

Mr. Gupta said Indian astronomers and engineers will play a key role in manufacturing the observatory's control and monitoring system - the digital electronics needed to process signals at the site. facility in Western Australia – and develops software for the majority of SKAO systems.

Part of the SKAO telescope being built in the Karoo region of South Africa's Northern Cape province: An array of 197 dish antennas spaced 150 km apart. The other half is an array of 131,072 2m high Christmas tree-shaped antennas in Western Australia. Locations are chosen far away from people's residences to limit signal interference.

According to astronomers, SKAO will help humanity understand the origin of the universe, search for aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence, search for planets with life similar to earth, discover The birth and destruction of millions of stars since ancient times.

Astronomers around the world estimate that this observatory can receive radio signals from anywhere in the universe for at least 50 years when satellites are expected to be launched in 2027-2028. The radio waves that all celestial bodies emit provide more accurate information than those transmitted from light (usually used by optical telescopes) because they can be blocked or redirected by dust, clouds or rain. .

Samuel Daniel

Update 01 April 2024