Breakthrough Listen, the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth, has released data from its observations of 2I/Borisov, an interstellar comet that had a close encounter with our Sun in December 2019.
Hubble captured 2I/Borisov on December 9, 2019, shortly after its closest approach to the Sun where it received maximum heating after spending most of its life in frigid interstellar space. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles.
2I/Borisov was discovered by Ukrainian amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov on August 30, 2019.
Also known as C/2019 Q4, the comet formed in a planetary system beyond ours and was ejected into interstellar space as a consequence of a near-collision with a planet in its original system.
2I/Borisov has taken on a ‘ghostly’ appearance after it began reacting to the Sun’s warmth.
The comet made its closest approach to the Sun on December 8, 2019, coming within about 293 million km (182 million miles) of our star.
By the middle of 2020, it will be on its way back into interstellar space where it will drift for millions of years before maybe one day approaching another star system.
“If interstellar travel is possible and if other civilizations are out there, and if they are motivated to build an interstellar probe, then some fraction greater than zero of the objects that are out there are artificial interstellar devices,” said Dr. Steve Croft, an astronomer with the Berkeley SETI Research Center and Breakthrough Listen.
“Just as we do with our measurements of transmitters on extrasolar planets, we want to put a limit on what that number is.”
Dr. Croft and colleagues look for electromagnetic radiation that is consistent with a signal that we know is produced by technology and is inconsistent with the background noise from natural astrophysical events.
This also requires eliminating signals from cellphones, satellites, GPS, internet, WiFi, and myriad other human sources.
“The Breakthrough Listen team intends to analyze all data released to date, systematically and iteratively,” said Breakthrough Listen principal investigator Dr. Andrew Siemion.
“Only 20% of the captured data have been analyzed thus far.”
“The group had earlier scanned the interstellar rock, ’Oumuamua, which passed through the center of our Solar System in 2017. Neither exhibited technosignatures.”
