Signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence could be detected in Offaly

A former NASA director has said that a telescope in Offaly could be the first to detect signs of alien life.

The iLOFAR Telescope at Birr Castle detects low-frequency radio waves from space. The telescope is run by a consortium of astrophysicists in Ireland and is part of a European network of similar telescopes.

Head of the Radio Telescope Project in Birr, Professor Peter Gallagher feels it could be the key to communicating with extra-terrestrial intelligence. He will give a sold-out talk at the Dunsink Observatory in Castleknock, Dublin this evening along with former director of Nasa’s Ames Research Centre, Professor Pete Worden.

Prof Worden said: “Two years ago, we thought we had our first signal, it came from the Parkes Radio telescope in Australia We are now pretty much convinced that was (caused by) interference, but it is just as likely that the next one will be from the I-LOFAR (in Birr).”

“It is virtually certain that we are going to find life, both in our solar system, we have a number of places we’re looking and a life-bearing planet around one of the nearby stars, within a decade,” concluded Prof Worden.

Professor of radio astronomy at Trinity College Dublin, Evan Keane, believes it may be possible that Birr could get the historic first signal from an ET intelligence, if aliens decide to communicate across space using radio frequencies of below 250 megahertz.

Speaking about this exciting possibility Prof Keane stated: “After I stopped pinching myself, I would do what all scientists do when they think they have detected something. I would try my darnedest to disprove it, ruling out all different types of possible obscure, obfuscating signals."