Technosignatures for Detecting Intelligent Life in Our Universe E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Astrobiology Perspectives on Life in the Univers
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 288

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

TECHNOSIGNATURES FOR DETECTING INTELLIGENT LIFE IN OUR UNIVERSE This book shows the current state of the research in the field of technosignatures, presenting novel ideas from economics, forecasting, and data sciences, making it an ideal research compendium for scientists. The book summarizes the multiple interdisciplinary efforts that have contributed to the field of technosignatures. The technosignatures represent any signals that can be collected from the Universe, such as radio wavelengths, optical signals, and many more, that can be potential candidates as signals emitted intentionally from another part of the Universe that is not Earth. It shows how current advances in science, technology, and social sciences can support this effort and can be used as both a resource for the scientists in the field and as a reference for the public at large interested in the topic. It includes novel research work from economics, forecasting, and data sciences fields, as well as a deeper understanding of the role mass media and popular fiction has played in the evolution of this field. Audience The book will interest both natural scientists (astronomers and astrophysicists) and social scientists (economists), as well as the new emerging data scientists. Amateur astronomers will be attracted to the book as well.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Preface

1 Historical Perspectives: How the Search for Technosignatures Grew Out of the Cold War

1.1 Introduction

1.2 The Extraterrestrial Life Debate Gets Technical

1.3 Finding the 21-cm Hydrogen Line

1.4 The Role of the Space Race in Early CETI

1.5 Same Planet, Different Civilizations

1.6 Making

Intelligent Life in the Universe

1.7 Conclusion: Returning to L

References

2 Reading the Cosmos: What Our Science Tells Us About the

Science

of Another World

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The Why and How of Interstellar Communication

2.3 An Early Language

2.4 A Language Based on Science

2.5 Our Senses, Our Perceptions and Our Science

2.6 Conclusion

References

3 The Impact of Discovering the First Technosignature

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Cultural Impact Based on Analogous Historical Events

3.3 Modeling the Impact Based on the Discovery’s Diffusion into Society

3.4 Multimodal Diffusion into Knowledge Systems of Complex Publics

References

4 Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence by Locating Potential ET Communication Networks in Space

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Concepts

4.3 Case Study

4.4 Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References

5 Habitable Mini-Earths with Black Hole Cores

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Surface Comfort

5.3 Concept and Design

5.4 Surface Conditions and Size

5.5 Black Hole Core

5.6 Mass Boosting and Terraformation

5.7 Technosignatures

5.8 Conclusion

Acknowledgement

References

6 Technosignatures in Time-Series Photometry

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Types of Technosignatures

6.3 Axis of Merit Discussion for These Technosignatures

6.4 Methods

References

7 Post-Detection Message Analysis and Comprehension

7.1 Categorizing an ET Signal

7.2 The Interstellar Communication Relay

7.3 The Processing Pipeline and Participants

7.4 Demodulation

7.5 Combining Pulse Width and Pulse Interval Modulation

7.6 Data Extraction

7.7 Classifying ETI Communication

7.8 Risks of Contact

References and Recommended Reading

8 Statistical Issues in the Search for Technosignatures

8.1 Introduction

8.2 General Issues

8.3 Emission Processes

8.4 Bayesian Inference from Non-Detection and Detection

References

9 Economics and Technosignatures: New Connections

9.1 The Different Faces of Economics

9.2 Economics in the Context of NASA Astrobiology Roadmap and the Drake Equation

9.3 Economics in the Context of Biosignatures vs. Technosignatures Research

9.4 Economic Methodology and Epistemology into Astrobiology

References

Index

Also of Interest

Wiley End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1

Figure 1.1 The flag of Earth, created in 1970 by James W. Cadle.

Figure 1.2 Illustrations of Tesla and Marconi in an article titled “Hello Earth!...

Figure 1.3 Gagarin waves from the car outside the headquarters of Amalgamated Un...

Figure 1.4 ‘The Israeli python and the American barrel,’ B. Zhukov, Pravda Vosto...

Figure 1.5 Excerpt from Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966). Sagan made cont...

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1 A visualization of modular network analysis of 96 exoplanetary system...

Chapter 5

Figure 5.1 Atmospheric surface conditions for various sizes of the planetary bod...

Chapter 6

Figure 6.1 Figure 1b from [6.14]. Schematic illustration of how a fleet of orbit...

Figure 6.2 Top panel of Figure 4 from [6.20]. Image of transiting geosynchronous...

Figure 6.3 Adapted version of Figure 2 of [6.20]. Transits of an Earth analog or...

Figure 6.4 Example illustrating the axes of merit representation for optical or ...

Chapter 7

Figure 7.1 Flowchart of the message analysis pipeline, with participants and out...

Figure 7.2 Sample plot of photons counted over time. Notice the spikes that rise...

Figure 7.3 A plot of a signal that combines both pulse width and pulse interval ...

Figure 7.4 Example of a planetary image embedded in a larger block of random dat...

Figure 7.5 The Cat’s Eye nebula, imaged in red, green and blue color channels. T...

Figure 7.6 A pure tone (sine wave) as would appear in a time domain graph (x-axi...

Figure 7.7 A 16-bit binary representation of the signal plotted above, in unsign...

Figure 7.8 An example of an English semantic network. Notice how each concept is...

Figure 7.9 A river flowing with mountains in the background. Image credit: “The ...

Figure 7.10 Example of a labeled image from the Voyager record which depicts the...

Chapter 8

Figure 8.1 Schematic illustration of the causal constraint of Eq. (8.1). The ann...

Figure 8.2 Posterior probability that ≥1 (left) and ≥100 (right) resulting fro...

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Begin Reading

Index

End User License Agreement

Pages

v

ii

iii

iv

ix

x

xi

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

Scrivener Publishing

100 Cummings Center, Suite 541J

Beverly, MA 01915-6106

Astrobiology Perspectives on Life of the Universe

Series Editors: Richard Gordon and Joseph Seckbach

In his 1687 book Principia, Isaac Newton showed how a body launched atop a tall mountain parallel to the ground would circle the Earth. Many of us are old enough to have witnessed the realization of this dream in the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Since then our ability to enter, view and understand the Universe has increased dramatically. A great race is on to discover real extraterrestrial life, and to understand our origins, whether on Earth or elsewhere. We take part of the title for this new series of books from the pioneering thoughts of Svante Arrhenius, who reviewed this quest in his 1909 book The Life of the Universe as Conceived by Man from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time. The volumes in Astrobiology Perspectives on Life of the Universe will each delve into an aspect of this adventure, with chapters by those who are involved in it, as well as careful observers and assessors of our progress. Guest editors are invited from time to time, and all chapters are peer-reviewed.

Publishers at Scrivener

Martin Scrivener ([email protected])

Phillip Carmical ([email protected])

Technosignatures for Detecting Intelligent Life in Our Universe

A Research Companion

Edited by

Anamaria Berea

Dept. of Data and Computational Sciences, George Mason University, Virginia, USA

This edition first published 2022 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA and Scrivener Publishing LLC, 100 Cummings Center, Suite 541J, Beverly, MA 01915, USA

© 2022 Scrivener Publishing LLC

For more information about Scrivener publications please visit www.scrivenerpublishing.com.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Wiley Global Headquarters

111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA

For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty

While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials, or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-1-119-64040-0

Cover image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dyson_Sphere_Render.png

Cover design by Russell Richardson

Set in size of 11pt and Minion Pro by Manila Typesetting Company, Makati, Philippines

Printed in the USA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Preface

Technosignature is a term that encompasses the idea of searching for intelligent, technological signatures of civilizations other than ours in the universe. A term that would probably be more familiar to the larger audience would be SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence). Technosignatures are the technological equivalent of biosignatures and a subset of biosignatures, which represent evidence of alien life, whether it is intelligent or not. They represent any signals that can be collected from the universe, such as radio wavelengths, optical signals, and many more, that can be potential candidates as signals emitted intentionally from another part of the universe that is not Earth.

This book—Technosignatures for Detecting Intelligent Life in Our Universe: A Research Companion—represents a collection of works by a wide diversity of researchers who have been in this field for a long time. While there have been several books written on the subject in the past, this is the newest research that we have to date in the field, and it by no means represents all aspects of technosignatures research. But this book does give us a good lens into the current state-of-the-art in the field. At the same time, it spreads across a wide range of other fields that are tangential or are used for SETI—from history and economics to communication, photometry, statistics, data science, astrobiology, exoplanetary science, and many more.

Some of the most important debates, when searching for life beyond our planet, have been around the definitions of life and intelligence. While we don’t have very accurate or universally agreed upon definitions for either of these monumentally important concepts, we can recognize, in general, what is life is and what intelligence is, especially on our planet. And, in general, we assume there is no intelligence without life, as we also consider artificial intelligence to be an extension and a byproduct of intelligent biological life. In fact, if biosignatures are signatures of life, in general, technosignatures are signatures of intelligent life, whether this life is biological, artificial, or even extinct. There are many voices in the community that are arguing that actually, in case we do find technosignatures, it is more likely that they will be some forms of artificial intelligence or signs of current or extinct civilizations.

At the same time, let’s not forget what Arthur C. Clarke said, that if we do find an advanced alien civilization, it is very likely that their technology would be, for us, undistinguishable from magic. Therefore, searching for technosignatures is not a trivial pursuit, and given how big the question “Are We Alone?” is, the problem we are facing is one of the most important and perennial in science.

As our science and scientific understanding and instruments advance, so do our definitions and framing or reframing of the same problem. The way we understand life and intelligence today, as well as potential life and intelligence, will co-evolve with our new discoveries, both here, on our planet, and in the Universe. And research companions like this one help with the current state of the field, but will also have to be updated and changed in time.

The first chapter, “Historical Perspectives - How the Search for Technosignatures Grew Out of the Cold War”, takes us into the detailed history of the field, the origins of SETI and the importance of placing this field in historical context. The second chapter, “Reading the Cosmos: What Our Science Tells Us about the Science of Another World”, highlights the importance of scientific process and evolution of science per se for an advanced civilization that can develop technologies and can communicate at interstellar distances, as well as how perceptions of space and time might affect communication with possible intelligent alien life. The third chapter, “The Impact of Discovering the First Technosignature”, delves into the social and societal impact of such a big discovery and how we can prepare here on Earth for disseminating such information to the public at large. The fourth chapter, “Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence by Locating Potential ET Communication Networks in Space”, outlines in more depth the possibility of communication networks from alien life, which would imply planetary and habitability networks, as well as more advanced and sophisticated means of communication. The fifth chapter, “Habitable Mini-Earths with Black Hole Cores”, proposes a new model of habitability for smaller planets, such as mini-Earths, that would have a black hole at their core. The sixth chapter, “Technosignatures in Time-Series Photometry”, proposes a new method for detecting technosignatures, based on the analysis of timeseries data in the light curves of photometry of exoplanets. The seventh chapter, “Post-Detection Message Analysis and Comprehension”, looks at the efforts that would be needed for the analysis, comprehension and possibly reply after such an alien message would be detected, from the point of view of information science and patterns. The eighth chapter, “Statistical Issues in the Search for Technosignatures”, develops a full physical-statistical description of electromagnetic technosignatures that could possibly populate the Milky Way from a technical point of view. The ninth and last chapter, “Economics and Technosignatures: New Connections”, explores the many ways in which ideas and findings from economics can be borrowed by the field of technosignatures in ways that can advance both detection and implications of detection of such a message or signal.

This collection of essays therefore represents an updated reference material for the field of technosignatures, and includes novel ideas from economics, information theory, astrophysics, statistics, social sciences, planetary sciences, and more. It is a research compendium for scientists from any interdisciplinary field who would want to get involved in this exciting area of work, and it is accessible not only to scientists but to the public at large as well.

Although not extensive, this book summarizes the multiple interdisciplinary efforts that have contributed to the field of technosignatures, particularly within the past few years. It shows how current advances in science, technology, and social sciences can support this effort and can be used as both a resource for the scientists in the field and as a reference for the public interested in the topic.

Anamaria [email protected] or [email protected] 2022

1Historical Perspectives: How the Search for Technosignatures Grew Out of the Cold War

Rebecca Charbonneau*

Historian-in-Residence, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Charlottesville, USA

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the history of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It will explore the following questions: Why did SETI transition from a fringe idea to a concerted scientific effort in the 1960s? What were the different cultural, ideological, and technical approaches in the search? Why did SETI develop primarily in the US and Soviet Union as opposed to other countries? What challenges did early SETI pioneers face? In investigating these questions, I will focus especially on the collaborative efforts between US astronomer Carl Sagan and Soviet astrophysicist I.S Shklovsky as my main case study. This chapter aims to contextualize the current effort to search for technosignatures within its historical roots, with hopes this context will prompt a mindful analysis of how we utilize the artefacts from history in the ongoing search.

Keywords: SETI, technosignatures, history, history of science, radio astronomy, cold war, soviet union, Carl Sagan

1.1 Introduction

The search for and communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI/CETI) [1.1] has largely been considered an internationalist scientific pursuit because of the “unifying” aspects of viewing humanity as a singular whole in a potential universe teeming with other intelligent civilizations. This hopeful scientific internationalism is reflected in much of the discourse and material culture surrounding the search for technosignatures; for example, the anti-national “flag of Earth” (Figure 1.1) flies in many places associated with the search, such as the Ohio State University Radio Observatory and the offices of the premier twenty-first century technosignature initiative, Breakthrough Listen. Indeed, many technosignature researchers, in studying the potential cultural impact of discovering extraterrestrial intelligence, have argued that the discovery of life on other worlds could possibly bring about global unity [1.2].

Figure 1.1 The flag of Earth, created in 1970 by James W. Cadle.

Despite the internationalist goals of the discipline, the early development of the search for technosignatures was deeply entrenched in the contentious geopolitics of its time, most notably in the tensions between the US and Soviet Union. Many introductory histories to SETI largely focus on significant events in SETI, such as the first SETI search in radio astronomy, Project Ozma, or introduce the major scientific contributors to the science. This chapter attempts to take a different approach; rather than focusing on key events and people, I will attempt to contextualise the origins of the science in the larger historical context. In doing so, this chapter will aim to answer the following questions: Why did CETI transition from a fringe idea to a concerted scientific effort in the 1960s? What motivated early CETI scientists to pursue their work? And why did CETI develop primarily in the US and Soviet Union as opposed to other countries? Answering these questions as they relate to one of the earliest efforts in the search for technosignatures will show that CETI was a direct product of the Cold War, primarily due to major government investment in scientific infrastructure and the influence of the Space Race on Soviet and American scientific and popular culture.

Additionally, CETI’s development during the Cold War led CETI researchers to face specific challenges regarding communication and collaboration across the Iron Curtain. I will show here that although CETI scientists in the 1960s were preoccupied with finding and communicating with extraterrestrial life, they simultaneously faced great challenges meeting and communicating with one another. These barriers to communication included restrictions and censorship in publication, mail interference, travel restrictions, and ideological differences. We might describe these as difficulties transmitting and interpreting textual signatures, and I will suggest that their search for extraterrestrial intelligence was complexly related to the diverse dimensions of interterrestrial intelligence.

It is my hope this chapter will give the reader a greater appreciation for the tenacity of early CETI pioneers, especially those who contributed from the Soviet Union, as well as recognize the influence of the Cold War on the philosophical questions posed by CETI. To illustrate the crisis of communication with the “alien”—both those on other planets and on Earth—during the Cold War, I will focus especially on the interactions between US astronomer Carl Sagan and Soviet astrophysicist I.S. Shklovsky and their attempts at publishing the first popular CETI book in the mid-1960s. In exploring the history of the Cold War and relations between the Soviet Union and United States, a greater context for the development of CETI emerges, providing insight into both the cosmic and Earth-based challenges faced by CETI pioneers. Understanding that context will hopefully prompt a mindful analysis of how we utilize the artefacts from this history in the ongoing search for technosignatures.

1.2 The Extraterrestrial Life Debate Gets Technical

To understand the role of the Cold War in the development of CETI, it is first important to recognize how the intervention of technology revolutionized the approach to the question of the plurality of worlds. Up until the nineteenth century and the start of the Cold War, the question of humanity’s place in the cosmos remained a purely speculative one, largely resigned to the musings of philosophers and theologians. In ancient Greece, atomist thinkers theorized on the plurality of kosmoi [1.3], and in early modern Europe, physicists inspired by Copernicanism published tomes speculating on the existence of other planets, peopled just as Earth was [1.4]. These ponderings on the nature of the universe over the course of millennia are often referred to as the “extraterrestrial life debate”.

In the nineteenth century, however, scientists began to explore the question of extraterrestrial life using scientific instruments such as the optical telescope, though their attempts remained largely rooted in conjecture and imagination, rather than systematic and empirical inquiry. For example, in 1906, Percival Lowell published a book titled Mars and Its Canals. In this book, Lowell, an American businessman and mathematician who had previously founded an astronomical observatory, asserted Mars was populated by intelligent life that had built intricate canals on the surface of the Red Planet [1.5].

Such assertions were not without some observational basis; Lowell had made countless observations of Mars in his observatory, and in 1907 published a mathematical essay in which he attempted to prove that the mean surface temperature of Mars was similar to an unseasonably warm winter day in England [1.6]. Still, even speculation rooted in some form of empiricism was inevitably unsubstantiated, and as a result, drew criticism and mockery from both the public and his scientific contemporaries. Alfred Russel Wallace, for example, published an entire book in refutation of Lowell’s assertions, in which he sharply concluded: “Mars… is not only uninhabited by intelligent beings such as Mr. Lowell postulates, but is absolutely uninhabitable” [1.7]. Because of a hypothesis which lacked falsifiability, in addition to the eccentric characters who investigated it, such as Lowell, the extraterrestrial life debate had a dubious reputation within the scientific community in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But in the mid-twentieth century there was a dramatic shift in the scientific perception of the extraterrestrial life debate, enabled by new technologies of radio communication and radar techniques.

Interest in using radio technology to communicate with extraterrestrials has been around for nearly as long as radio technology itself. In 1896, Serbian-American electrical engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla asserted that his new electrical transmission system could be used to communicate with Mars and soon after, Italian radio engineer Guglielmo Marconi claimed to have received radio signals from Mars. Although Tesla claimed to have used his radio experiments to become “the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another” in 1901, it was not until about two decades later that using radio technology to communicate with other planets became widely discussed in scientific circles [1.8]. In January 1919, the New York Times published an article titled “Radio to Stars, Marconi’s Hope” [1.9]. It contained a summation of an interview the English journalist Harold Begbie had conducted with Marconi, during which Marconi discussed “the possibility of communicating by wireless with the stars” [1.10]. In the interview, Marconi speculated on the potential use of radio technology for interstellar communication. He said:

Messages that I sent off ten years ago have not yet reached the nearest stars. When they arrive there why should they stop? … That is what makes me hope for a very big thing in the future… communication with intelligences on other stars [1.11].

The very next year, Marconi announced that he was investigating signals he postulated migh have come from Mars [1.12]. The New York Times once again published a lengthy article on Marconi’s so-called “Mars signals”. In Europe, Marconi’s claims faced mostly ridicule; one French newspaper, for example, publicized Marconi’s discovery under the headline “Hello, Central, give me the moon”, referring sardonically to Marconi’s wireless telegraphy system [1.13]. Yet the signals Marconi received, which he described as “distinct but unintelligible”, generated much excitement in the United States. A newspaper in Minnesota, The Tomahawk, published an article titled “Hello Earth! Hello!”, which jumped at the possibility of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (Figure 1.2). In the article, Marconi is quoted as having said:

Figure 1.2 Illustrations of Tesla and Marconi in an article titled “Hello Earth! Hello!” in The Tomahawk, March 18, 1920, Image 6. Digital scan held in the Library of Congress.

If there are any human beings on Mars I would not be surprised if they should find a means of communication with this planet. Linking of the science of astronomy with that of electricity may bring about almost anything [1.14].

Still, despite interest and international conversation, these early investigations into the use of radio technology to communicate with extraterrestrials were rooted in conjecture and imagination, not rigorous scientific investigation, not unlike those of Lowell. For example, according to The Tomahawk, Marconi proposed Martians may use Morse code to communicate with Earth, which demonstrates that although ideas for interplanetary radio contact were forming, there was no serious scientific investigation into the problem of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence.

The advent of radio astronomy shifted the investigation of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence from a speculative one to a truly technical one because it gave scientists the opportunity to test their theories by making strategic radio observations of the cosmos. Although the science began as early as 1931 with Karl Jansky’s discovery of the cosmic sources of radio waves [1.15], the formal discipline of radio astronomy was a direct product of World War II, growing out of the radar tools and techniques developed during the war. After the war, there was a great interest held by former wartime radio engineers in using the recently developed radar and radio communication technologies for scientific purposes, and scientists in the nations that had been involved in the war, especially Australia, Britain, the US, and the USSR, began to pursue research in the newly burgeoning field of radio astronomy [1.16].

Several years after the end of the war, however, as noted by historian Paul Foreman, US physics “underwent a qualitative change in its purposes and character”, with increased government intervention and a new emphasis “in the nation’s pursuit of security through ever more advanced military technologies” [1.17]. Radio astronomy had a unique dual purpose as both a tool for war and scientific pursuits, which led to heavy investment by governments in the infrastructure and institutions required. This dually motivated investment is perhaps best embodied in the establishment of the US National Radio Quiet Zone. In 1958, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had established about 13,000 square miles as the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), which placed restrictions on radio broadcasting in the area [1.18]. The principal reason given for this large-scale federal intervention was the opening of the first US national observatory for radio astronomy, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which had been established a couple of years earlier, on November 17, 1956 [1.19]. Buried in the last sentence of the fourth line-item of the FCC’s Docket No. 11745, amending the commission’s rules and regulations to give interference protection to frequencies utilized for radio astronomy, however, was this statement: “additional coordination would be undertaken by the commission with the Department of Navy at Washington, D.C. with respect to the Sugar Grove facility” [1.20].

The FCC document goes into no further detail on the purpose of the Sugar Grove facility, and the National Reconnaissance Office still to this day keeps much of the documents from the planning and development of facilities in Sugar Grove classified. It is relatively well known from other sources, however, that soon after the establishment of NRAO, the Naval Research Lab began plans to build a 600-foot radio telescope for the purposes of gathering intelligence on the Soviet Union [1.21]. So while the US promoted the “pure science” purpose of the NRQZ, there was an undercurrent of military motivation. The advent of radio astronomy and CETI science during the Cold War is particularly interesting, then, because of the use of its technology for spying on both the unknown intelligence of the cosmos and unknown intelligence here on Earth. As this chapter will demonstrate, watching and being watched were intrinsic parts of collaborative scientific work during the Cold War, and CETI is a particularly revealing example of this fusion of scientific and geopolitical aims.

1.3 Finding the 21-cm Hydrogen Line

Given the influence of the Cold War in developing both radio astronomy and CETI, it is surprising that prior histories of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence have largely neglected contributions from the Soviet Union. This is perhaps because of poor communication between the US and USSR during the Cold War, which meant Soviet radio astronomy had little reach or impact on the rest of the world [1.22]. In his introduction to the English edition of A Brief History of Radio Astronomy in the USSR, NRAO astronomer and historian Kenneth Kellermann noted that there were several instances in which Soviets would make a discovery before the rest of the world, but due to communication barriers, Western scientists would often receive credit for making the same discovery at a later date. One example was the case of the discovery of radio recombination lines, which Soviet astronomers at Pulkovo Observatory and Lebedev Physical Institute (FIAN) [1.23] discovered as early as 1963 or 1964 [1.24]. Because of a lack of clear and consistent communication across borders, however, credit is usually assigned to Bertil Hoglund and Peter Mezger, who reported their own independent discovery in 1965 after observations made at NRAO [1.25]. In addition, while radio astronomy observatories in the US and most other Western countries were civilian organizations, Soviet radio astronomy was inextricably tied to state and military institutions and technologies, and therefore many of their publications were heavily redacted or censored, making it difficult for Western scientists to easily verify their scientific validity [1.26].

Another factor which made attribution of discovery a challenge was the poor exchange of journals and other forms of scientific publishing during this period. The Soviet Union did not join the Universal Copyright Convention, which by 1952 had been adopted by forty nations, including the United States and the vast majority of Western Europe [1.27]. Instead, the Soviet Union subscribed to its own internal copyright law, which granted the right to translate and publish any foreign work without the original author’s or publisher’s consent, and without the attribution of royalties [1.28]. Additionally, foreign works were also permitted to be edited and modified without the original author’s permission, and this was commonly done with journals. The Communist Party control over scientific institutions was “almost absolute”, so foreign scientific journals first went through a process of review, translation, and censorship before they were released in the Soviet Union [1.29]. As a result of this ideological stronghold, scientists usually had to expect delays in receiving new scientific results from the West, putting them at a disadvantage to their Western colleagues [1.30]. To make matters of communication worse, Soviet publications were practically inaccessible to Western scientists. As historian of Soviet science Michael Gordin has noted, in the late 1950s only 1.2% of American scientists could read Russian. Furthermore, in 1947 the Soviet Communist Party decided that “publication of Soviet scientific research abroad constituted a betrayal of native scientific resources” and as a result, the leading foreign-language publications were eliminated [1.31]. This lack of consistent sharing of information sometimes led to a difference in attribution of discovery in the West and the Soviet Union, leading to confusion that lasts up to the present day.

One example of this lasting confusing can be seen in historical documentation of the discovery of the 21-cm hydrogen line, the prediction of which is generally generally attributed to Hendrik van de Hulst, a Dutch astronomer and mathematician who published a paper in 1945 that suggested that the transition of neutral hydrogen at 1420 MHz should be theoretically observable using radio telescopes [1.32]. This was an incredibly significant insight in the development of radio astronomy, and later CETI, because of the abundance of hydrogen in the universe. Just a few years later, in 1951, Harvard University astronomers Harold Ewen and Edward M. Purcell became the first to observe the line. Since then, the hydrogen line has become a fundamental aspect of observational radio astronomy, allowing astronomers to map the structure of the Milky Way and other galaxies as well as the large-scale structure of the universe. So significant was its discovery to radio astronomy that it has even been memorialized in song form, with a chorus that reminds listeners that “Ewen and Purcell caught the radiation line/Of interstellar hydrogen, a most important find [1.33].”

When examining the historiography of the discovery of the line, however, another name besides van de Hulst’s sometimes appears: Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky, a Soviet astrophysicist. Several sources, including The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (2007) and Frank Drake’s Is Anyone Out There