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Was it E.T.?

In the early hours of the morning in the first week of December 2008 a mysterious signal was detected from outer space by me at the Observatory at UWS Campbelltown Campus.

Was it ET calling or was it a spurious signal or just some unknown astrophysical phenomenon?

It has generated a lot of interest in astronomical circles and the media in Europe and the US. A report also appeared in the Weekend Australian a couple of weeks ago.

But in science and in particular physics we have to be doubly sure that what we received in our sophisticated high-tech instrumentation is genuine.

So for the time being we are analyzing the signals and trying to find out ways of trying to explain that it is not from ET. It is certainly not yet the time to break open the champagne bottle lying on my desk in the Observatory.

The search for ET became a scientific experiment when in 1961 a young American astronomer, Frank Drake turned his telescope on two stars about ten light years from us to search for any tell tale signals from ET.

Unfortunately he did not find any signals. But the importance and significance of this experiment was that it alerted other astronomers that it was a feasible way to answer one of humankind’s most intriguing question – are we alone in the universe?

All manner of radio telescopes and instrumentation have been used to search for ET in the believe that the signal will be transmitted by radio waves. In fact, since 1961 over 100 separate experiments have been conducted by various groups of astronomers but no signal great or small has been detected.

So in Year 2000 a group of us decided that it was time to look at other search strategies and in particular in the optical spectrum.

In a research paper that I published in 2000 in an international astronomical journal I made the case that if ET are more advanced than us then they would not use radio technology but laser light pulses or flashes to communicate with other civilizations in our galactic environment.

One of the remarkable things about using laser pulses or flashes is that a billionth second laser flash will outshine its host star by several orders of magnitude.

In addition to this laser light will carry over a million times more information than a radio wave. This flash will be quite easily picked up by the highly sophisticated equipment we have at the Observatory.

Thus, in 2000 I built an observatory at the University’s Campbelltown Campus to carry out a dedicated search for ET laser flashes. It is the only dedicated search in the optical spectrum in the Southern Hemisphere.

I have been carrying out this search for the last eight years. The other optical searches in the Northern Hemisphere are being carried out at Harvard University, Princeton University and the University of California.

I believe that in 50 years from now all communications on planet Earth will be based on optical communications. Radio wave technology will be seen as old hat by any advanced civilization.

Most house lights in the Campbelltown area go out by about 9 or 10 o’clock at night and darkness spreads like a blanket over the whole city.

But unknown to Campbelltonians a telescope at the Observatory at the UWS Campbelltown Campus is silently scanning the night sky in search for laser flashes from ET.

We are still a long way off from finding a signal from ET but if we do, it will be a discovery greater than the discovery of America.

Do you think scientists and astronomers should try to answer this intriguing question about whether we are alone in the Universe?