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Discovering alien civilizations in this generation is possible, and a prototype for a megatelescope that could spot them could be completed in two years, a Maui astronomer says.
Jeff Kuhn, a Kula resident and professor of astrophysics with the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, is the founder of the Colossus telescope project that will be able to identify heat signatures from distant life forms on faraway planets.
“We’ve been pushing all the angles we can to get the funding in order to get something into place,” Kuhn said in a phone interview last week.
Colossus will cost half-a-billion dollars. Consisting of 60 independent off-axis telescopes, Colossus would be the largest aperture telescope in the world, measuring about 243 feet in diameter, or almost the size of a football field.
A site for the telescope has been chosen in Chile with the help of a wealthy investor and about $1 million has been raised to study and design Colossus. Designers still are working on final schematics, Kuhn said.
A prototype scaled-down version of Colossus is in the works and could be completed in two years, he said. To be built in Chile, the prototype will cost $2 million.
Kuhn said he is looking to showcase technologies to be used in the telescope to potential investors. He has formed companies with the University of Hawaii that have explored methods to develop concentrated solar power as well as lightweight mirrors. Concentrated solar power uses mirrors to focus sunlight to drive turbines or engines to produce energy, the Solar Energy Industries Association website said.
The key to discovering alien life will be in their planetary waste heat signature, which is an unavoidable “biomarker,” according to Kuhn. The telescope will be able to detect biomarkers, from which astronomers through a complex equation could determine power utilization and how technologically advanced a civilization is.
“For the first time, we would be able to study the atmospheres in great detail,” he said. “Any civilization that uses power, uses heat, and the Colossus works to find that heat signature.”
The Colossus would be capable of detecting heat signatures within 60 light years of Earth, or roughly 350,000,000,000,000 miles away.
It would also help astronomers take a “cosmic census,” which would aid in understanding of survivability of human beings.
Kuhn’s greatest fear is finding no signs of life.
“It would make me think that life is terribly fragile,” he said. “We’ve discovered time and time again that we’re not special. Earth is not the center of the galaxy.”
* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.