May 28, 2008
communication by neutrino
The SETI project scans the skies for radio signals from intelligent life elsewhere. Perhaps we are looking for the wrong technology. The United States is building a neutrino detector in Antarctica called IceCube to detect naturally occurring neutrinos. Neutrinos pass easily through most matter and are relatively noise free, allowing for the ability to send a very clean signal.
The beauty of directed beams of neutrinos at the energy levels considered here is that their signal would clearly signal the presence of an extraterrestrial civilization, there being no known natural mechanism for making neutrinos in only this energy range. The authors estimate that properly encoded data could accumulate at a rate of roughly 1000 pages per year. If any civilizations have taken this course and are actively transmitting to us, we can sit back and wait for the result, for the neutrino detectors coming online should soon discover their signatures.
See also Wired, Physics World.
comments
Leave a Reply