{"id":18349,"date":"2018-09-25T23:42:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T15:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/are-we-alone-nasa-turns-to-the-search-for-technosignatures-beyond-earth\/"},"modified":"2018-09-25T23:42:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T15:42:35","slug":"are-we-alone-nasa-turns-to-the-search-for-technosignatures-beyond-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/are-we-alone-nasa-turns-to-the-search-for-technosignatures-beyond-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we alone? NASA turns to the search for technosignatures beyond Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dyson
An artist\u2019s representation shows a megastructure known as a Dyson sphere capturing the energy from a distant star. Such a structure could create observable technosignatures pointing to the civilization behind its construction. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar \/ SETI International)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been a quarter-century since Congress cut off NASA funding for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, but now the space agency is revisiting the topic under another name: technosignatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to announce that NASA is taking the 1st steps to explore ways to search for life advanced enough to create technosignatures: signs or signals, which if observed, would let us infer the existence of technological life elsewhere in the universe,\u201d Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate, said in a tweet today.<\/p>\n

The search is the focus of a workshop taking place this week at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, with experts on the search for exoplanets, artificial radio signals and other potential pointers in attendance. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is due to give a welcome message.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a far cry from 1993, when a congressional effort spearheaded by Sen. Richard Bryan killed off NASA\u2019s 10-year SETI program, which was known as the High Resolution Microwave Survey, or HRMS. \u201cThis hopefully will be the end of Martian hunting season at the taxpayer\u2019s expense,\u201d Bryan declared at the time.<\/p>\n

Previously:<\/strong> Scientists expand their spectrum in the search for alien life<\/h4>\n

Since then, much has changed: Philanthropists including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Seattle tech pioneer Nathan Myhrvold kept the SETI search alive. Ironically, NASA turned its focus to the search for life\u2019s signatures on Mars (which was never a target of NASA\u2019s SETI campaign). And astronomers started discovering planets beyond our solar system, including many that seem potentially habitable.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Kepler and TESS missions are in the forefront of the search for alien Earths \u2014 but as lists of potentially habitable planets grow, how can scientists determine which worlds actually harbor life, based on observations made from a distance of light-years?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the subject of a mounting pile of research papers. Some studies suggest looking for the spectral signs of chemical disequilibrium in the atmospheres of alien planets, or thermodynamic disequilibrium that could point to the existence of an energy-intensive civilization. Others call for seeking out signatures of bad behavior ranging from global warming and nuclear blasts to air pollution and light pollution from alien cities.<\/p>\n

One well-known case even led scientists to consider whether an alien megastructure was behind the seemingly puzzling pattern of fluctuations in a distant star\u2019s brightness. (They eventually dropped the idea.)<\/p>\n

And then there are the traditional SETI strategies used in the 58-year-long search for artificial patterns in faraway radio or laser emissions.<\/p>\n