The hunt for alien civilizations

[caltrek]

SETI Institute Launches Groundbreaking Technosignature Science and Technology
June 12 , 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) June 12, 2024, Mountain View, CA -- The SETI Institute is announcing the launch of a pioneering grants program dedicated to advancing technosignature science. This first-of-its-kind initiative aims to support innovative research addressing critical observational, theoretical, and technical questions in the search for technosignatures that could provide evidence of past or present extraterrestrial technology.

At the heart of this groundbreaking research is the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a world-class instrument known for its capabilities in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The ATA is the first, and still only observatory built specifically to conduct SETI research. With its upgraded feeds and ... backend processing capabilities, the ATA’s advanced technology and strategic design make it a pivotal tool in detecting potential technosignatures, solidifying its position as a leading asset in this scientific frontier.

“In just the last few years, a wealth of new research avenues have opened up in technosignature science, made possible by new ideas, new technologies and a fast growing community of early-career researchers,” said Dr. Andrew Siemion, Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. “ The novel investigations enabled with this grants program will spur the state-of-the-art in the technosignature field, continuing in the spirit of the SETI Institute’s 40 years of leadership in SETI science.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1048044

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Geoscientists Dig into Why We May Be Alone in the Milky Way
July 1, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) New research by University of Texas at Dallas geoscientist Dr. Robert Stern and a colleague suggests a geological explanation for why conclusive evidence for advanced extraterrestrial (ET) civilizations has not been found, even though the Drake equation predicts that there should be many such civilizations in our galaxy capable of communicating with us.

In a study published online April 12 in Nature’s Scientific Reports, Stern and Dr. Taras Gerya, a professor of Earth sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, propose that the presence of oceans and continents, as well as long-term plate tectonics, on life-bearing planets is essential for the evolution of active, communicative civilizations (ACCs).

The researchers conclude that the probable scarcity of these three requirements on exoplanets would significantly decrease the expected number of such ET civilizations in the galaxy.

“Life has been around on Earth for about 4 billion years, but complex organisms like animals didn’t appear until about 600 million years ago, which is not long after the modern episode of plate tectonics began,” said Stern, a professor of sustainable Earth systems sciences in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. “Plate tectonics really jump-starts the evolution machine, and we think we understand why.”

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1050067

For a presentation of study results as published in Scientific Reports: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54700-x

[firestar464]

Scientists discuss why we might not spot solar panel technosignatures

https://phys.org/news/2024-08-scientist ... tures.html

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JUICE Space Probe Confirms Earth Is Habitable
Well, that's a relief.
By Ryan Whitwam September 11, 2024

The European Space Agency's JUICE spacecraft has confirmed that Earth is, indeed, habitable. So, we can all breathe a sigh of relief in our comfortable, life-sustaining atmosphere. Of course, this isn't the mission's goal—JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) is headed to the solar system's largest planet to search for signs of life on its moons. As the probe builds up speed for the trip, Earth presented an opportunity for a test run.

JUICE will provide planetary scientists with an unprecedented opportunity to investigate three of Jupiter's moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. Decades of study have provided strong evidence that these worlds have subsurface oceans that could theoretically support life. JUICE has a raft of instruments that will characterize the oceans and search for the chemical signatures of living organisms.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/esa ... -habitable

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Alien Phone Calls Could Be Quantum, And We're Not Ready to Hear Them
by Mike McRae
September 26, 2024

Introduction:

(Science Alert) For a galaxy that ought to be buzzing with alien radio waves, space seems awfully quiet.

A new study suggests maybe, just maybe, that's because extraterrestrials can see we don't have the right quantum equipment to hear them. Not yet, at least.

Of course, there's a whole bunch of plausible explanations for why years of searching have failed to provide even the slightest murmur from a non-human intelligence among the stars.

Maybe they're all too afraid. Maybe they're all long dead. Maybe we're too boring. Maybe we just need to be patient. Maybe we really are alone.

Or, according to University of Edinburgh theoretical physicist Latham Boyle, aliens may be too cool for old school, having found the benefits of using qubits to pack more into their bandwidths.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/alien-pho ... ear-them

[firestar464]

The L variable of the Drake equation is probably what makes estimates so hard.

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Strong Evidence that Simple Life is Easy Likely Common in the Universe
October 27, 2024 by Brian Wang

New evidence changes best estimate of the start of life on Earth and time when the earth will become uninhabitable due to changes in the Sun.

Previously, scientists believed that life (simple single cell) started 700 million years after the earth cooled and oceans formed. New evidence has pushed this start date to 200 million years after the earth cooled. The earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. The earth was cool enough for life 100 million after at 4.4 billion years ago. Now, there is evidence that life started 4.2 million years ago.

The sun is changing and will make the Earth uninhabitable in 1.8 billion years.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/10/s ... verse.html

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[Powers]

And it's literally nothing.

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Extraterrestrial Life May Look Nothing Like Life on Earth − So Astrobiologists are Coming Up With a Framework to Study How Complex Systems Evolve
by Chris Impey
December 6, 2024

Introduction:

(The Conversation) We have only one example of biology forming in the universe – life on Earth. But what if life can form in other ways? How do you look for alien life when you don’t know what alien life might look like?

These questions are preoccupying astrobiologists, who are scientists who look for life beyond Earth. Astrobiologists have attempted to come up with universal rules that govern the emergence of complex physical and biological systems both on Earth and beyond.

I’m an astronomer who has written extensively about astrobiology. Through my research, I’ve learned that the most abundant form of extraterrestrial life is likely to be microbial, since single cells can form more readily than large organisms. But just in case there’s advanced alien life out there, I’m on the international advisory council for the group designing messages to send to those civilizations.

Detecting life beyond Earth

Since the first discovery of an exoplanet in 1995, over 5,000 exoplanets, or planets orbiting other stars, have been found.

Many of these exoplanets are small and rocky, like Earth, and in the habitable zones of their stars. The habitable zone is the range of distances between the surface of a planet and the star it orbits that would allow the planet to have liquid water, and thus support life as we on Earth know it.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/extraterre ... ve-243531

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Breaking the Curse of the Habitable Zone
by Paul M. Sutter
February 17, 2025

Introduction:

(Undark) The Habitable Zone is a central concept in our explorations for life outside the Earth. Is it time to abandon it?

The Habitable Zone is defined as the region around a star where liquid water can exist on the surface of a planet. At first glance, that seems like a good starting place to hunt for alien life in other systems. After all, there’s only one kind of life known in the universe (ours) and it exists in the Habitable Zone of the Sun.

But researchers have long noted that the Habitable Zone concept is far too restrictive. Besides the examples of the icy moons in our own solar system, life itself is able to alter the chemistry of a planet, shifting its ability to retain or remove heat, meaning that the un-habitable regions of a distant system might be more clement than we thought.

Even if we restrict ourselves to the basic biochemistry that makes Earthly life possible, we have many more options than we naively thought. Hycean worlds, planets thought to be englobed by water surrounded by thick hydrogen atmospheres, once thought to be too toxic for any kind of life, might be even more suitable than terrestrial worlds.

What about tidally-locked planets around red dwarf stars, like our nearest neighbor Proxima b and the intriguing system of TRAPPIST-1? Conditions on those planets might be hellish, with one side facing the incessant glare of its star and the other locked in permanent night. Neither of those extremes seem suitable for life as we know it. But even those worlds can support temperate atmospheres if the conditions are just right. A delicate balancing act for sure, but a balancing act that every life-bearing planet must walk.

Read more here: https://www.universetoday.com/170939/b ... e-170939

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Does planetary evolution favor human-like life? Study ups odds we're not alone
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-planetary ... -life.html
by Pennsylvania State University

Humanity may not be extraordinary but rather the natural evolutionary outcome for our planet and likely others, according to a new model for how intelligent life developed on Earth.

The model, which upends the decades-old "hard steps" theory that intelligent life was an incredibly improbable event, suggests that maybe it wasn't all that hard or improbable. A team of researchers at Penn State, who led the work, said the new interpretation of humanity's origin increases the probability of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

"This is a significant shift in how we think about the history of life," said Jennifer Macalady, professor of geosciences at Penn State and co-author on the paper, which was published Feb. 14 in the journal Science Advances.

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Extremely Large Telescope Could Catch Signs of Faraway Life In Mere Hours: Study
Early simulations show that it would take only 10 hours for the forthcoming ELT to find signs of life near Proxima Centauri.
By Adrianna Nine March 25, 2025
O

https://www.extremetech.com/science/ext ... mere-hours
Work began on the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) more than a decade ago, and it's still about three years away from its ribbon-cutting ceremony. But if scientists are lucky, they won't have to wait long for the ELT to snag some game-changing data once it's up and running. Simulations imitating the ELT's operational state have shown that the Very Large Telescope's (VLT) giant successor will take mere hours to find signs of life on other bodies—if there are any to be found, that is.

The ELT will feature a 39-meter-wide primary mirror array, lending it nearly 14 times the light-collecting capabilities of the world's largest single-mirror telescopes currently in operation. Astronomers expect its images to be 16 times sharper than those captured by the beloved Hubble Space Telescope. Alone, the ELT will help scientists untangle the universe's history by examining early stars, galaxies, dark matter, and dark energy; alongside other European Southern Observatory technologies, it will gather the data necessary to map the cosmos in unprecedented detail.

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Webb telescope detects a possible signature of life on a distant world

Source: Washington Post

A distant planet’s atmosphere shows signs of molecules that on Earth are associated only with biological activity, a possible signal of life on what is suspected to be a watery world, according to a report published Wednesday that analyzed observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

The peer-reviewed report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters presents more questions than answers, acknowledges numerous uncertainties and does not declare the discovery of life beyond Earth, something never conclusively detected. But the authors do claim to have found the best evidence to date of a possible “biosignature” on a planet far from our solar system.

The planet, known as K2-18b, is 124 light-years away, orbiting a red dwarf star. Earlier observations suggested that its atmosphere is consistent with the presence of a global ocean. The molecule purportedly detected is dimethyl sulfide (DMS). On Earth it is produced by the decay of marine phytoplankton and other microbes, and it has no other known source. The astronomers want to observe the planet further to strengthen the evidence that the molecule is present.

The lead author of the new paper, Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge in England, repeatedly urged reporters in a briefing to be cautious in describing the new research. But his warning bracketed more dramatic statements.

Read more: https://wapo.st/43Wg9hG

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Did Astronomers Find Evidence of Life in the Atmosphere of K2-18b?
by Phil Plait
April 21, 2025

Introduction:

(Bad Astronomy Newsletter) I’m gonna go with “no”.

Read more here: https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/no- ... -planet

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SETI Institute Launches ARISE Lab, Bringing SETI and Radio astronomy to Community Colleges
April 22, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) SETI Institute Launches ARISE Lab, Bringing SETI and Radio Astronomy to Community Colleges.

April 22, 2025, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute announced it will expand its pilot program funded through a grant from the Amateur Radio and Digital Communication (ARDC) Foundation now called ARISE Lab (arise.seti.org). This initiative brings SETI science to community colleges and provides hands-on training for community college instructors and students in astronomy, digital signal processing, and radio science.

"Hands-on experiences are proven to improve student engagement and retention," said Dr. Vishal Gajjar, project lead and radio astronomer at the SETI Institute. "With ARISE, we’re combining cost-effective tools like GNU Radio with one of the most captivating topics in science — the search for life beyond Earth — to spark curiosity and build skills across STEM disciplines.”

Led by Gajjar, the team has developed an experiential learning technique (ELT) curriculum. Students work with real-time radio telescope data from the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA), the world’s first and only radio observatory designed specifically to search for technosignatures. They learn to identify and analyze signals from real astrophysical sources.

The ARISE curriculum includes modules and labs. Modules include lecture notes, slides, pre-lab readings, lab manuals, instructor notes, and teaching resources designed to integrate into an existing course. Labs are standalone activities that include a lab manual and pre-lab reading and can be used independently or paired with an instructor’s materials.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1081345

caltrek’s comment: The great thing about this is the way that the natural curiosity about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence can motivate students to study science, perhaps even pursue careers in scientific fields. That no extraterrestrial intelligence is actually found may become beside the point.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The neat thing about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that it can yield a lot of dividends even if no such intelligence is discovered. One dividend is the interest in science that can be sparked. Below is a case in point.

Training the trainers: Empowering South Africa’s Girl Guides with Space Science
August 4, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute awarded a new education grant through its Support Technology, Innovation, Development and Education (STRIDE) program. Space Science for Youth in South Africa is a professional development program for Girl Guides South Africa (GGSA) staff and volunteers and is additionally funded by The Center for Radio Astronomy and Technologies, Rhodes University. The project will leverage the SETI Institute’s experience developed through Reaching for the Stars: NASA Science for Girl Scouts which developed space science badges for Girl Scouts aged 5-18 and provided training for Girl Scout volunteers and organizers. SETI Institute Director of Education Pamela Harman will lead Space Science for Girls in South Africa as PI, with Jessica Henricks as Co-I.

“This STRIDE award leverages our expertise to bring space science activities and career awareness to GGSA,” said Harman. GGSA aims to empower girls and women to reach their full potential and gives girls the confidence, skills and aspirations to advocate for change and make an impact in the world.”

Developed and delivered by the SETI Institute, this 2.5 day in-person training in July 2025 will equip a carefully selected group of GGSA leaders with knowledge, tools, experience, and resources to expand engaging and inclusive space science education for girls ages 4.5 - 18. The leaders will not only be prepared to deliver space science programs directly, but, more importantly, to train the GGSA’s adult volunteer leaders who serve GGSA’s 20,000 members in urban and rural areas.

“By sharing a thoughtfully curated set of inquiry-based space science activities with experienced Girl Guide volunteer leaders, this project maximizes its impact through strategic capacity-building,” said Henricks. “It’s inspiring to see how this train-the-trainer program will empower GGSA leaders across South Africa to deliver fun and inclusive after-school STEM learning experiences.”

Read more or the {i]Eurekalert[/i] article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1093572

Here is a SETI website: https://www.seti.org/about/

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