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Pulsar Positioning System: A quest for evidence of extraterrestrial engineering

Tijdschriftbijdrage - Tijdschriftartikel

Pulsars have at least two impressive applications. First, they can be used as highly accurate clocks, comparable in stability to atomic clocks; second, a small subset of pulsars, millisecond X-ray pulsars, provide all the necessary ingredients for a passive galactic positioning system. This is known in astronautics as X-ray pulsar-based navigation (XNAV). XNAV is comparable to GPS, except it operates on a galactic scale. I propose a SETI-XNAV research program, to test the hypothesis that this pulsar positioning system might be an instance of galactic-scale engineering by extraterrestrial beings (section 5). The paper starts with a critique of the rejection of the extraterrestrial hypothesis when pulsars were first discovered (section 2), continues with some highlights on the rich pulsar phenomenology (section 3), and their usefulness for various purposes (section 4). The core section 5 proposes tests and predictions of SETI-XNAV, related to: the pulsar distribution and power in the galaxy, their population, their evolution, extragalactic pulsars, possible pulse synchronizations, pulsar usability when navigating near the speed of light, decoding galactic coordinates, directed panspermia, and information content in pulses. Even if pulsars are natural, they are likely to be used as standards by ETIs in the galaxy (section 6). Such a common galactic timing and positioning standard have deep consequences for SETI and METI. I discuss potential policy issues, as well as benefits for humanity, whether the research program succeeds or not.
Tijdschrift: International Journal of Astrobiology
ISSN: 1473-5504
Issue: 3
Volume: 8
Pagina's: 213-234
Jaar van publicatie:2019
Trefwoorden:SETI, Extraterrestrial intelligence, pulsars, XNAV, Global Positioning System, High energy astrobiology, Pulsars: binary, Pulsars: millisecond, Pulsars: X-ray, Astroengineering, meti, directed panspermia, global navigation satellite system, space navigation
CSS-citation score:1
Toegankelijkheid:Open