Oxford University, Breakthrough Prize to search for alien life

NEW DELHI: The University of Oxford announced a new scientific partnership the Breakthrough Prize Foundation to find evidence that would signal the presence of life beyond Earth. The university’s Department of Physics will be the new international headquarters for the programme, the official statement said.

This will be the largest-ever astronomical programme searching for evidence that would signal the presence of life beyond Earth, it said.

“ Listen’s arrival at Oxford will enhance existing research strands, introduce a new direction for research, and support significant technological innovation,” Oxford University said.

The partnership will include search for life on extrasolar planets, including a focus on our nearest neighbours. Detection of astrophysical transients and anomalies in optical transient surveys, developing cutting-edge machine learning techniques, and exploring the possibility of using the lunar farside as an interference-free site for radio astronomy are some of the objectives of the partnership.

“Breakthrough Listen will also use data from the Vera Rubin Observatory in Northern Chile (expected to be operational in 2024). This uses a 3200 megapixel camera, co-developed with Oxford’s Department of Physics, to image the entire visible sky as seen from Cerro Pachon, Chile, every 3-4 nights, and is predicted to help discover about 20 billion galaxies and a similar number of stars,” it said.

The project announced that a new AI-driven method had identified eight previously undetected potential technosignatures. The university said that by continuing to develop these tools, the programme has the “potential to help deliver a step-change in big data capabilities that will have applications for a diverse range of industries”.