Recently, the project announced that it would be turning its attention to the hypothetical 'alien megastructure' that some think is causing a star known as KIC 8462852 to oddly dim off and on. One researcher even suggested that the dimming could be caused by a gigantic alien megastructure – like a Dyson sphere – that might be circling the star 1,500 light-years away from Earth. Another, more plausible hypothesis is that there's a comet swarm orbiting the star, blocking the starlight in weird patterns, but no one's been able to find evidence to support that, either. Now, SETI researchers hope to finally get to the bottom of the mystery once and for all by making it the first project in the Breakthrough Listen initiative, a US$100 million project funded by internet investor Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking that aims to search for intelligent life in the cosmos. Basically, the team is searching for a signal of intelligent life in different radio signals, much like you search for music stations with a normal radio at home or in the car. Check out the video below to hear the SETI team talk more about the project:
– Stephen Hawking believes that mankind might want to just mind its own business, cosmically speaking. Even as he turns his attention to the search for alien life, Hawking says we should think twice before making any efforts to communicate with alien civilizations, ScienceAlert reports. Any civilization advanced enough to contact Earth is likely to be "vastly more powerful [than us] and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria," Hawking says. He explains that an alien civilization arriving at Earth could use its vast technological advantage to take advantage of our planet in the same way Columbus exploited the Native Americans. Hawking made the comments in a new video, Stephen Hawking's Favorite Places, which can be viewed on CuriosityStream. One of Hawking's current projects, Breakthrough Listen, is dedicated to scanning the nearest million stars for signs of alien life, the Guardian reports. That project's first major target is KIC 8462852, an irregular star that astronomers have theorized may be home to an alien "megastructure." "As I grow older I am more convinced than ever that we are not alone," Hawkins says in the film. "One day we might receive a signal from a planet ... but we should be wary of answering back."