Journal of Astrobiology & Outreach

Abstract

Are Radio Pulsars Extraterrestrial Communication Beacons?

LaViolette PA

Evidence is presented that radio pulsars may be artificially engineered beacons of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) origin. It is proposed that they are beaming signals to various targeted Galactic locations including our solar system and that their primary purpose may be for interstellar navigation. More significantly, about half a dozen pulsars appear to be marking key sky locations that convey a message intended for our Galactic locale. One of these, the Millisecond Pulsar (PSR1937 + 21), appears to make reference to the center of our Galaxy, which would be a logical shared reference point for any interstellar communication. It is noted that of all pulsars, this one comes closest to the point that lie one-radian from the Galactic center along the galactic plane. The chance that a pulsar would be positioned at this key location, as seen from our viewing perspective, and also display the highly unique attention-getting characteristics of the Millisecond Pulsar is estimated to be one chance in 7.6 trillion. Other pulsars that appear to be involved in conveying this Galactic center message include the Eclipsing Binary Millisecond pulsar (1957 + 20) and PSR 1930 + 22, both of which make highly improbable alignments relative to the Millisecond Pulsar position, the Crab and Vela pulsars, and PSR 0525 + 21. All display one or more unusual attention-getting characteristics. A method is proposed whereby a civilization might magnetically modulates the cosmic ray flux of a neutron star to produce one or more stationary, broadband, targeted synchrotron beams having pulsar-like signal characteristics. Also a lower tech approach is proposed that would instead modulate the relativistic electron beam from a linear particle accelerator to produce a pulsed free electron laser beam.