Search Results: RadioAstronomy

The Square Kilometre Array's ultra-sensitive radio telescope requires unprecedented RF isolation, forcing engineers to construct its Australian datacenter within nested Faraday cages featuring Star Trek-style shielded airlocks. This extreme containment prevents computing equipment from drowning out faint cosmic signals with stray radio emissions. As construction nears completion, this radical infrastructure prepares to process terabytes of astronomical data daily while maintaining absolute radio silence.

Elon Musk's proliferating Starlink constellation is generating unintended radio emissions thousands of times stronger than the faint signals from the early universe sought by the $2 billion SKA-Low telescope in Australia. While SpaceX collaborates with SETI on solutions, astronomers warn that unmitigated 'spectrum pollution' could permanently blind humanity to the universe's first whispers.

A new study reveals that Earth's aviation and military radar systems emit detectable radio signals strong enough for advanced extraterrestrial observatories to identify as artificial technosignatures. Researchers calculated that these emissions create a distinct pattern visible across interstellar distances, potentially marking humanity as a technologically advanced species. The findings reshape how we consider both the search for alien life and humanity's unintentional cosmic footprint.