Michael Garret

I will review the current field of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), also with a focus on work we have been doing in Manchester supported via the Breakthrough Listen Initiative. In particular, we are looking for evidence of energy intensive civilisations via anomalies in astronomical data i.e. looking for features in astronomical data that do not have a natural astrophysical explanation. So far no evidence for such civilisations has been found but the search continues, and every year the instruments and analysis tools become better and more sophisticated – if there are anomalies out there, we are making great strides towards their detection. I will look at what the future holds, especially in the context of the large survey telescopes now under construction, including the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

Trondheim Science Week is a festival arranged by volunteering students from Linjeforeningen Delta, the student association for mathematics and physics at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology).
The next science festival is 12. -14. of March 2025

 

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