Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence - Gamma-ray Bursts

Gamma-ray Bursts

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are candidates for extraterrestrial communication. These high-energy bursts are observed about once per day and originate throughout the observable universe. SETI currently omits gamma ray frequencies in their monitoring and analysis because they are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere and difficult to detect with ground-based receivers. In addition, the wide burst bandwidths pose a serious analysis challenge for modern digital signal processing systems. Still, the continued mysteries surrounding gamma-ray bursts have encouraged hypotheses invoking extraterrestrials. John A. Ball from the MIT Haystack Observatory suggests that an advanced civilization that has reached a technological singularity would be capable of transmitting a two-millisecond pulse encoding 1×1018 bits of information. This is "comparable to the estimated total information content of Earth's biosystem-genes and memes and including all libraries and computer media."