February 22, 2021 To find alien life in our universe, scientists have considered searches for optical lasers or even giant energy-harvesting structures known as Dyson spheres. Now they’re suggesting a more mundane sort of search, a hunt for air pollution in exoplanet atmospheres.
Artist’s concept of an advanced alien civilization on a distant exoplanet. A new study suggests that some alien societies might pollute their planets’ atmospheres, much as we on Earth do. If so, we might be able to detect this alien pollution. Image via NASA/ Jay Freidlander.
Early SETI – Searches for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – focused solely on looking for artificial radio signals. Much of SETI still leans that way, but the search has now broadened to include the idea of searching for technosignatures (signs of advanced technologies) from alien civilizations, living on distant planets. Scientists are now discussing and even beginning to hunt for signals from, for example, optical lasers o