Technologies

Astronomers search for alien tech among billions of stars but come up empty

It’s all quiet in the galactic center.

Using one of the world’s most sensitive radio telescopes, a trio of Australian researchers has gone alien hunting in the heart of the Milky Way. In late 2020, they pointed their ears toward the galactic center, listening for alien technosignatures. In their field of view lay 144 known exoplanets and, potentially, billions of stars.

But after keeping their ears to the sky for more than seven hours, they didn’t hear anything plausibly alien. It seems awfully quiet out there.

The search was conducted by the Murchison Widefield Array, a collection of 4,096 spider-like antennas planted in the Western Australian desert. The antennas, arranged in 256 tiles, can pick up low-frequency radio waves from space. Importantly, the array has a wide field of view, which means researchers can listen out for technosignatures — signals broadcast by intelligent life — across a huge region of space. «We are looking for long sustained signals or technological leakages from the inhabitants daily lives,» says Chenoa Tremblay, a researcher with the SETI Institute in California.

The search is described in a new paper, which appeared Monday on preprint repository arXiv (PDF) and has been accepted for publication in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

This isn’t the first time the team has used MWA to hunt for alien signals, either. They previously examined the dark forest of our cosmos back in 2020 using the MWA, analyzing over 10 million stars, studied the galactic center back in 2013 and performed a search toward the Orion nebula in 2018. They didn’t hear boo from any aliens in those three surveys, either.

However, the new search is different in a few keys ways, according to Tremblay, who is also first author of the new study. The previous search of the galactic center, in 2013, only contained 38 known exoplanets whereas the new search contained 144. «This is our largest population of known exoplanets within our four surveys with the MWA,» Tremblay says.

Hunting for life around the galactic center is particularly useful because the region contains the highest density of stars within our galaxy. Where there are stars, there may be planets and where they are planets… well, you get the drift. «[M]odelling and our large catalogue of known solar systems suggest that there are high chances of habitable planets toward the Galactic centre,» Tremblay notes.

The amount of stars in the new search is difficult to accurately predict because the galactic center is mighty dusty, obscuring the view of surveys and preventing an accurate read. Previous searches have used data from the Gaia Space Observatory to count the amount of stars but that doesn’t work in the galactic center. Tremblay explains that the team used a different survey, known as Galactic Nucleus, which classified 3.3 million stars. However, the survey covers less than 1% of the area surveyed by MWA.

«If we extrapolate this, we are covering billions of stellar systems out to the centre of our Galaxy,» Tremblay notes.

That’s, in theory, a lot of chances to hear from extraterrestrial friends. However, it’s still just a mere drop in the cosmic ocean — there’s plenty of other places alien technosignatures could be emanating from.

It was also the first time a search has been conducted at a high frequency of 155 MHz. This reduced the chance of picking up daily Earth communications and interference. Previous searches focused on lower frequencies between 98 and 133MHz. Of course, that comes with a big caveat: We’re kind of assuming these alien technologies are using the same technologies to broadcast as we are.

The MWA is currently undergoing an upgrade that will allow searches at different frequencies and time resolution, giving it the ability to match other searches for technosignatures like those conducted by the Breakthrough Listen collective. Tremblay notes that all 256 of the tiles containing the spider-like antennas will be able to image the sky when the upgrades are complete.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, July 13

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 13.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is a little meta. Two clues refer to Wordle, another super-popular game from The New York Times. We have answers for that puzzle, too. In fact, iff you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Gibbon or gorilla
Answer: APE

4A clue: Bird whose name is an excellent starting guess in Wordle, according to WordleBot
Answer: CRANE

6A clue: Cry from a judge
Answer: ORDER

7A clue: Family nickname that would make a terrible starting guess in Wordle
Answer: MAMMA

8A clue: «Hooray!»
Answer: YAY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Widespread display
Answer: ARRAY

2D clue: Lakshmi who was a longtime host of «Top Chef»
Answer: PADMA

3D clue: «Don’t let perfect be the ___ of good» (aphorism)
Answer: ENEMY

4D clue: URL ending
Answer: COM

5D clue: Historical period
Answer: ERA

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 13, #293

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 13, No. 293

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has some fun categories. There’s only one requiring last names, and one requiring teams, so if you can sort those easily, you should be in good shape. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Bad news for a golfer.

Green group hint: Aries animal.

Blue group hint: Think California capital city.

Purple group hint: No charge.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Mess up a golf shot.

Green group: Rams

Blue group: Sacramento Kings greats.

Purple group: Free ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is mess up a golf shot. The four answers are duff, flub, mishit and shank.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is rams. The four answers are Colorado State, Los Angeles, Rhode Island and VCU.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Sacramento Kings greats. The four answers are Divac, Richmond, Stojaković and Webber.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is free ____. The four answers are agent, kick, safety and throw.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for July 13, #1485

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for July 13, No. 1,485.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a fun word, but not easy to guess. That first letter doesn’t come up in any of the starter or secondary words I tend to choose. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.