China's Giant Telescope Allows Humans To See More Advanced Alien Civilizations

FAST mampu mendeteksi robot yang dapat mereplikasi diri yang dikirim oleh peradaban Tipe II. (foto: fast)

JAKARTA - An exciting new study proposes that humanity will be able to see self-replicating alien robots created by advanced alien civilizations light-years away in space, thanks to China's giant Aperture Ball radio Telescope (FAST), which has an antenna with a diameter of 500 meters.

The concept of an advanced civilization is quite well known among science fiction fans, but Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev actually proposed a metric to measure how advanced civilizations could gain based on the amount of energy their planet could harness.

Civilizations that can capture all of the energy falling on their home planet from stars are classified as Type I. Type II civilizations can harness all the energy of their original star using a theoretical engine such as the Dyson sphere, whereas Type III civilizations have the energy of the entire galaxy available.

By comparison, Earth is currently well below the energy requirements of Type I civilizations. Another related theory is the von Neumann probe, which is loosely defined as self-replicating robots created by advanced civilizations. The idea is that these robots can mine resources from other planets, make more copies of themselves using the available raw materials, and then move on to their next target.

As per the study entitled 'Can China's FAST telescope detect extraterrestrial von-Neumann probes?' by Dr. Osmanov of the Free University of Tbilisi, we can use China's FAST radio telescope to detect the presence of these self-replicating robots.

This study is based on the assumption that the von Neumann probes made by the Type I and Type II civilizations will emit some form of radiation in the radio spectrum band, for reasons such as proton emission as these robots carry raw materials and move through space, or when they try to absorb energy emitted by the Dyson ball.

The radiation emitted may be invisible in the visible electromagnetic spectrum, but theoretically can be detected in the infrared or radio spectrum. Astronomers actually rely on radio observations to find celestial bodies deep into the universe.

Research Dr. Osmanov also included a calculation of the observation distance of China's FAST telescope — the world's largest full-aperture radio telescope — and concluded that it could cover nearly 85 percent of the Milky Way galaxy.

Interestingly, China is also planning to build a spacecraft that is several miles long and will be used for space exploration. Based on FAST's range and energy calculations, this study concludes that the von Neumann robots sent by Type I and Type II civilizations may be detectable by the FAST radio telescope system.

Based on calculations involving a fair amount of theoretical assumptions, FAST is said to be capable of detecting self-replicating robots sent by Type II civilizations from about 16,000 light-years away. As for the von Neumann probe made by the more advanced Type III civilization, FAST may be able to see it from about 390 million light-years away.

To scale, the closest galaxy to the Milky Way is Andromeda, which is about 2.5 million light-years away. The research hasn't been peer-reviewed and hasn't appeared in a scientific journal, but it does offer an interesting idea of how far humanity must go before it can reach the higher energy targets of civilization and begin hunting for alien life in the cosmos.