ASTRONOMER THINKS MESSAGE WAITING

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 15

ASTRONOMER THINKS MESSAGE WAITING

Satellite From Other World, May Orbit Sun

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, June 20. An Australian regarded as one of the world’s leading radio astronomers has suggested that a satellite dispatched by another civilisation may be in orbit around the sun, the “New York Times” reported today.

The scientist, Dr. Ronald Bracewell, believes the satellite may have a recorded message to be broadcast when activated by radio. This could include a television image of the constellation from which it was sent.-

Dr. Bracewell, who is professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, is co-author of a leading text book on radio astronomy.

The “New York Times” reported that his “startling” reasoning had been published in the British scientific journal “Nature” and he had now repeated it in an interview. •

Dr. Bracewell noted, the newspaper said, that in 1927, 1928 and again in 1934, strange radio “echoes” were heard that had never been adequately explained. It was unlikely, but not entirely impossible, that these were emissions from an interstellar messenger. Professor Bracewell, the "New York Times" said, had gone a long step beyond those astronomers who, in recent years, had contended that there almost certainly were intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe. He believed It possible that such societies within our own galaxy had long since established contact with one another. The “New York Times” devotes nearly two columns to Professor Bracewell’s theories, some of it

on its front page. The newspaper also makes the Sydney University-educated master of science its “man in the news.”

Noting that Professor Bracewell’s theories had evoked worldwide interest among scientists, the newspaper said: “The question, as he sees it, is whether our civilisation, having taken 5000 million years to evolve, can survive the few hundred years necessary to establish contact with such a galactic community before we blow ourselves to atoms.”

This week, the first attempt to pick up signals from another star is coming to an end. It began on April 8 at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. There, for limited periods, an 85foot dish antenna was trained on one or the other of two neighbouring stars. The search for the signals, known as Project Ozma (for the queen in “The Wizard of Oz”) was directed at two of the three nearest stars thought capable of having habitable planets. Nothing appeared to have come of the experimental run.

Professor Bracewell’s doubts concerning the likelihood of direct radio signals were based on his view that the chances were slim of finding a civilisation as close as these three stars. One had to have about 1000 candidates to enjoy any likelihood of success, he believed, and this meant looking out to a distance of about 100 light years.

The three close stars were but 10 light years distant, a light year being the distance travelled by light in a year at 186,000 miles a second. j' .. * ■

Professor Bracewell considered it unlikely that even a highly advanced civilisation would undertake to beam extremely powerful radio signals continuously at 1000 stars.

If some community had begun sending such signals toward the solar system early in the earth’s history, it would have been doing so about 4000 million years with no results.

A more practical method, he believed, would be to “spray” the nearest candidate stars with satellites. These would orbit in silence, awaiting the dawn of a civilisation advanced enough to make use of radio.

The messenger, powered oy sunlight, would sweep all possible frequencies and, when it heard a signal, would reply on the same frequency. If the planet then repeated its original signal, indicating awareness of the messenger’s presence, the latter would speak Its piece in a manner that any intelligent being could decipher. “Such a probe may be here now. in our solar system trying to make its presence known to us.” said Professor Bracewell in “Nature” on May 28.