A Hillsdale physics student published his research on radio technology that has the capability of discovering extraterrestrial technology. The paper was published in Nature Astronomy journal.
Senior Shane Smith is studying physics with a particular focus in radio astronomy. In the summer of 2020, he worked as an intern at the University of California, Berkeley Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center to conduct research for Breakthrough Initiatives, a privately funded physics research program.
“This is the first time a Hillsdale physics student has published in a nature journal. It’s very rare for an undergraduate anywhere to publish in Nature Astronomy,” Associate Professor of Physics Timothy Dolch said. “In general, it’s unusual for undergraduates to be authors on published papers in any journal.”
Smith said he never expected to be published in such a big journal as Nature Astronomy.
“The entire publishing process took about six months to get it to the journal and another three after that until publication,” Smith said.
“I received a lot of help from all the collaborating researchers who all have Ph.D.s and publish tons of papers. That was really helpful.”
At UC Berkeley, Smith sifted through data collected by radio telescopes to look for signs of intelligent technology in space.
“The research lab that I worked with is looking for things called technosignatures, or signs of technology in the universe that’s not our own,” Smith said. “One of the main problems they deal with in trying to find intelligent technology is filtering it out from interference in our own technology.”
Smith said he observed radio frequencies taken in by telescopes aimed at Proxima Centauri, earth’s closest neighboring star. The result of his research was the isolation of a signal that fit the criteria SETI researchers believe signals from Proxima Centauri would resemble.
Ultimately, Smith and other researchers concluded the signal he observed was “an unusual but locally generated form of interference,” according to Smith’s publication in Nature Astronomy.
Despite this conclusion, Smith said his findings were promising because they display the capabilities of the current technology to continue conducting high level research in this area.
Dolch said Smith’s findings, though not definitive evidence of extraterrestrial life, are an enormous precedent for further discovery.
“Searching for technosignatures is the most difficult and the most important scientific endeavor ever attempted,” Dolch said. “Many non-detection papers have been published over the years, but this one is a Dunkirk moment.”
Smith’s article is available to read on Nature Astronomy’s website.