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 Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 25 #662

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Dec. 25, No. 662.

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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle has a holiday theme, and if you know a certain Christmas carol, you’ll quickly determine which words to hunt down. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Carolers count.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Five golden rings.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RIMS, HIMS, MARS, CHIME, CHIMES, MADS, DATE, DIAL, WAIL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

LORDS, MAIDS, SWANS, LADIES, PIPERS, DRUMMERS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is CHRISTMASDAYS. To find it, look for the C that’s three letters down on the far-left row, and wind across.

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Toughest Strands puzzles

Here are some of the Strands topics I’ve found to be the toughest in recent weeks.

#1: Dated slang, Jan. 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.

#2: Thar she blows! Jan.15. I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT.

#3: Off the hook, Jan. 9. Similar to the Jan. 15 puzzle in that it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK.

Technologies

Judge Blocks Texas App Store Age-Check Law

A preliminary injunction found the Texas law, set to begin Jan. 1, is «more likely than not unconstitutional.»

A new Texas state law set to take effect on Jan. 1 would have required app stores to implement age verification processes. But the law has been put on hold, at least temporarily, by a federal court judge.

As reported by the Texas Tribune, Senate Bill 2420, also known as the Texas App Store Accountability Act, is the subject of a temporary injunction issued by US District Judge Robert Pitman.

Pitman said in his decision that the law as written is broad, vague and «more likely than not unconstitutional.» However, he also wrote the court «recognizes the importance of ongoing efforts to better safeguard children when they are on their devices.»

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The Texas law, signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in May, requires app store operators — including Apple, Google, Nintendo, Steam and more — to build age verification processes for the storefronts and to only allow downloads to minors who obtain parental consent. The injunction is a ruling in an October lawsuit filed by the Computer & Communication Industry Association.

CCIA senior vice president Stephanie Joyce said in a statement, «This Order stops the Texas App Store Accountability Act from taking effect in order to preserve the First Amendment rights of app stores, app developers, parents, and younger internet users. It also protects parents’ inviolate right to use their own judgment in safeguarding their children online using the myriad tools our members provide.»

Other individuals and the advocacy group Students Engaged in Advancing Texas also filed suits over the law, the Texas Tribune reported.

App Store Accountability Act

The bill author, State Senator Angela Paxton, said the bill was meant to give parents «common sense tools to protect their kids and to survive court challenges by those who may have lesser priorities.»

The language of Texas Senate Bill 2420 does not only include mobile app stores from Apple or Google, but any «website, software application, or other electronic service that distributes software applications from the owner or developer of a software application to the user of a mobile device.»

By that definition, websites with links to browser games or mobile game consoles with download options would fall under the Texas law as written. The law also defines mobile devices as including phones and tablets, as well as any other handheld device capable of transmitting or storing information wirelessly.

The parental consent aspect of the law requires those under 18 to have an app store account affiliated with a parent or guardian to purchase or download applications.

Age verification elsewhere

In an effort to keep adult materials out of reach of minors and to protect children from potentially harmful content and interactions, tech companies have been compelled by law or through legal action to verify the age of users.

Roblox, which has a huge audience of minors, began rolling out stricter age verification after investigations and lawsuits hurt its reputation as a safe gaming space. Australia is perhaps the most large-scale example of a government restricting access to online content. In December, Australia began restricting social media access to those 16 and older. Reddit recently challenged that law.

In the US, age verification laws have primarily targeted adult sites. Texas already has a law on the books that requires adult sites to age-block their content. The Supreme Court upheld that law in a June ruling. The UK has also enacted age restriction rules for adult sites as have other US states.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Dec. 25

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 25.

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.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Of course, there’s a very Christmassy clue involved. And once you solve the entire puzzle, look at the letters used in all the answers and see what they have in common. (5-Across will tell you!) Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

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

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