Powerful radio telescope to catch extraterrestrial life

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, Jan 6 (UNI) Are we alone in the Universe? Or is there life beyond the planet earth, which is trying to communicate with us? To catch a message from the extraterrestrial life, a consortium of 17 countries, including India, is planning to build a radio telescope, 100 times more powerful than the most powerful available today.

The site for the project has to be selected by 2008 for which Australia and South Africa are in the forefront, Prof Govind Swarup, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics, said at the ongoing 94th Indian Science Congress here.

The construction of the telescope is to start in 2010 and be completed by 2020. The cost of the project is now estimated at 1-1.5 billion dollars, which can go up to 2 billion dollars at the time of completion, he said.

Explaining the project, Dr Swarup said the telescope will consists of 8,000 dish antennas forming a 3,000 km-long array with 50,000 sq m surface area.

''According to the Drake Equation, there can be 1 to 10,000 planets where air, water and other elements necessary for sustaining life are available,'' Dr Swarup, a Fellow of Royal Society, London, said.

''Life in these planets might be trying to communicate with us through radio frequency signals. and the antennas will try to catch that message and transmit it to connected computers,'' he said.

About the role of India in the ambitious project, he said: ''Our contribution is not substantial at this stage in terms of money, but we would like to contribute in software development.'' Dr Swarup said his antenna, patented last month, could vie for the project.

UNI

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