Most Powerful Radio Search of 3I/ATLAS Ends With a Result No One Expected
The Daily Galaxy••science
Key Points:
- A recent radio investigation of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS conducted by the Breakthrough Listen project represents one of the most sensitive technosignature searches ever performed, scanning frequencies from 1 to 12 GHz using the Green Bank Telescope.
- Despite initial excitement and speculation that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien probe, the search found no evidence of artificial transmissions; all candidate signals were identified as terrestrial interference or false positives.
- The study sets an upper limit on continuous-wave transmissions from 3I/ATLAS at 0.1 watts, indicating that if an alien device were transmitting at even low power levels, it would likely have been detected.
- This investigation establishes a new standard for real-time technos
