Alien hunt ongoing despite coronavirus pandemic

THE hunt for alien life in the Universe will go on despite astronomy being out on the backburner while the coronavirus pandemic continues.

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COVID-19 has brought much of the world to a standstill, but astronomers are still enlisting the help of those at home to hunt for aliens. SETI (the search for extraterrestrial institute) is still running its SETI@home programme while the pandemic is ongoing.

SETI@home is a downloadable programme from the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) which uses free space on Internet-connected computers to analyse radio telescope data.

The findings are fed back to UC Berkeley if any evidence of an extraterrestrial signal is discovered.

And while the programme will be temporarily paused for those outside of SETI, UC Berkeley will continue with observations during the pandemic.

Lead astronomer Seth Shostak said: "The observations processed by SETI@home users are only about two percent of the total data accumulated by the Breakthrough team.


Alien hunt ongoing despite coronavirus pandemic (Image: GETTY)


SETI is looking for alien signals (Image: GETTY)

"The rest are processed using computers at the University, and that will continue, of course.

"The SETI Institute, which for more than a decade has conducted its SETI experiments using the Allen Telescope Array, has always tried to analyse observations in real-time.

"In other words, within a few minutes of data being taken, they are sifted by on-site hardware and software. If an interesting (which is to say, possibly extraterrestrial) signal is found, the target is re-observed immediately.

"This approach minimises the chance that an intermittent signal is missed. After all, it’s possible that the extraterrestrials might broadcast in our direction for only a short amount of time before swinging their transmitting antenna elsewhere.


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"Obviously, the chances for a detection are maximized if you can pounce on any suspect signal right away.

"For this reason, an off-line analysis system such as SETI@home was not deemed optimal for the SETI Institute’s programs at the Allen Telescope Array."

SETI also plans to use the time off to make key technical upgrades to its telescopes to maximise the search for aliens.

Mr Shostak said: "While the Berkeley team has hit the pause button on SETI@home, neither their research nor that of the SETI Institute has been stayed.


What is coronavirus? (Image: EXPRESS)

"There are technical improvements being made to the Allen Telescope Array receivers that will double their sensitivity in some frequency bands.

"If you have twice the sensitivity, then the number of star systems that you can detect (at any given power level) is increased by about a factor of three. That’s real improvement.

"SETI@home’s familiar screen display may be seen less often now, but our hunt for other intelligence in the galaxy – an endeavor made possible by your support – is more vigorous than ever."