Aliens? Yes, W.V. is leading in the search for life off our own rock
West Virginia is known for many things: its beauty, its people, a baby bulldog that's captured the attention of the country.
But what the Mountain State should also be known for is its leading effort in the search for extraterrestrials.
Green Bank Observatory, located in Pocahontas County, is one of two radio telescopes in the world directing the largest ever scientific research program looking for evidence of civilizations beyond Earth.
Green Bank Observatory is leading the way for the search of extraterrestrials.
The program, Breakthrough Listen, is surveying 1,000,000 of Earth's closest stars, sending out radio waves, hoping an alien astronomer picks up the signal.
Dr. Jim Jackson is the Director of the Green Bank Observatory and said sending radio signals into the ethos provides our best chance at connecting with other civilizations.
He was recently a guest on the Mountaineer Media Podcast.
"Radio is good if you want to announce your presence to the universe because it's cheap and stands out from the rest of the signals in space," Dr. Jackson said.
Dr. Jim Jackson was promoted to director of the observatory in October of 2021. (Courtesy Green Bank Observatory)
The belief is an advanced civilization would be able to receive radio signals and properly dissect that it was sent from another advanced society.
"Radio astronomically stands out and you assume technological civilizations have lots of astronomers looking at the sky, right? Of course, they do. That's the idea. That's what we're looking for," Jackson said.
Jackson is confident the Breakthrough Listen program is our best chance, as of right now, at finding a civilization beyond our own.
"This is one of the ways people are looking for extraterrestrial civilizations by looking for radio signals and Breakthrough Listen does this in a systematic way," he said.
If you'd like to understand the science behind how Breakthrough Listen is searching for life off of our own rock, we encourage you to listen to our entire interview with Dr. Jackson.
