My college laptop was slow. It didn’t help that the internet was too. Neither fact distracted me from two crucial tasks: downloading music and searching for aliens. The former was a study in patience—tracks spooled out at glacial speeds—the latter a (lazy) labor of love. Scientists had the genius idea of parceling out astronomical data to laptops where a screen saver could comb through them for alien radio signals.
I’m sad to report: None found.
But a lot has changed since then. Computers are faster, software is smarter, and the amount of astronomical data—across the spectrum not to mention gravitational waves—has exploded. It’s worth asking: If the data was too much for astronomers to process years ago, what potentially revolutionary signals have we missed since then?
In a recently released report, a team of Caltech and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomers, led by Joseph Lazio, George Djorgovski, Curt Cutler, and Andrew Howard, argue we can’t know for sure unless we change our search strategy to match the times.
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