First use of VLBI to focus on a single star system for signs of life comes up empty
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - 05:30
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org) -- Astronomers in Australia have reported on their findings in their paper posted on the preprint server arXiv, regarding their use of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) to study radio signals emitted from a single star system some 20 light years away. In their paper, soon to be published in the Astronomical Journal, the researchers say that the absence of signals from the studied star system was not unexpected as the odds of finding signals from intelligent beings when aiming at any given star system are not good when noting that there are billions to choose from. Despite this, they report feeling optimistic as the project proved that such technology could be used to rule out other star systems in the future.