A research team led by Dr. Sofia Sheikh of the SETI Institute, in collaboration with the Characterizing Atmospheric Technosignatures project and the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center, set out to answer a simple question: If an extraterrestrial civilisation existed with technology similar to ours, would they be able to detect Earth and evidence of humanity? If so, what signals would they detect, and from how far away?
Researchers used a theoretical, modeling-based method, and this study is the first to analyse multiple types of technosignatures together rather than separately. The findings revealed that radio signals, such as planetary radar emissions from the former Arecibo Observatory, are Earth’s most detectable technosignatures, potentially visible from up to 12,000 light-years away.
Atmospheric technosignatures – such as nitrogen dioxide emissions – have become more detectable than they were a decade ago, thanks to advances in instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). With HWO, SETI could detect these emissions from as far as 5.7 light-years away, just beyond our closest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri.
Finally, as you get closer and closer to Earth, you would detect more and more human-made signatures simultaneously, including city lights, lasers, heat islands, and satellites, offering a comprehensive view of our technological presence.
“Our goal with this project was to bring SETI back ‘down to Earth’ for a moment and think about where we really are today with Earth’s technosignatures and detection capabilities,” said Macy Huston, co-author and postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Astronomy. “In SETI, we should never assume other life and technology would be just like ours, but quantifying what ‘ours’ means can help put SETI searches into perspective.”
“One of the most satisfying aspects of this work was getting to use SETI as a cosmic mirror: what does Earth look like to the rest of the galaxy? And how would our current impacts on our planet be perceived,” said Sheikh. “While of course we cannot know the answer, this work allowed us to extrapolate and imagine what we might assume if we ever discover a planet, with, say, high concentrations of pollutants in its atmosphere.”
SETI scientists search for advanced alien civilisations by looking for signs of technology – signals or patterns that cannot be explained by natural phenomena that may indicate intelligent life. These signals are called technosignatures and come in various forms. Radio telescopes are the most commonly used tool for SETI searches. Researchers also use optical telescopes to scan for laser pulses that could indicate communication or propulsion patterns.
“Another approach involves studying the atmospheres of exoplanets in habitable zones around stars to look for chemical signatures that might suggest life or industrial activity. SETI scientists also consider technologies far beyond those currently invented on Earth, such as Dyson spheres, but these far-future technologies were not considered in this study.
This study demonstrates how Earth’s technosignatures can provide a multiwavelength framework for understanding the detectability of technology on other planets and shaping our search for intelligent life beyond Earth. Future telescopes and receivers could enhance our detection sensitivity or enable us to identify new types of technosignatures, such as other atmospheric signatures of pollution. Repeating this type of study over the years as astronomical technology advances and the human impact on the planet evolves could provide fresh insights and refine our approach to discovering extraterrestrial life.
This paper appears in the Astronomical Journal article “Earth Detecting Earth: At What Distance Could Earth’s Constellation of Technosignatures be Detected with Present-day Technology? ” by Sheikh et al.
Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organisation whose mission is to lead humanity’s quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and to share that knowledge with the world. Its research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages expertise in data analytics, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia and government agencies, including NASA and NSF.
Web: www.seti.org
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For 40 years, the SETI Institute has been a leader in the search for life and intelligence beyond Earth. Recent discoveries, such as exoplanets, have brought us closer than ever to answering the question of whether we are alone in the universe. To honour the Institute’s pioneering past as we look ahead to its future, Big Picture Science presents a new monthly podcast series highlighting the groundbreaking research of the SETI Institute.
Web: www.seti.org
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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