{"id":18679,"date":"2017-12-30T00:56:57","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T16:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/how-scientists-are-expanding-the-spectrum-for-seti-and-the-search-for-alien-life\/"},"modified":"2017-12-30T00:56:57","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T16:56:57","slug":"how-scientists-are-expanding-the-spectrum-for-seti-and-the-search-for-alien-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/how-scientists-are-expanding-the-spectrum-for-seti-and-the-search-for-alien-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How scientists are expanding the spectrum for SETI and the search for alien life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Planetary
This map from the University of Puerto Rico\u2019s Planetary Habitability Laboratory shows the known planetary systems within about 100 light-years from Earth, plotted on a logarithmic scale. The systems with potentially habitable exoplanets are highlighted with red circles. (PHL @ UPR Arecibo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BERKELEY, Calif. \u2014 Twenty years after the movie \u201cContact\u201d brought the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, to the big screen, it\u2019s dawning on astronomers that the real-world plotline might turn out to be totally different 20 years from now.<\/p>\n

So far, SETI has been dominated by radio telescope surveys looking for anomalous patterns that may point to alien transmissions. But SETI\u2019s practitioners are realizing that E.T. may make its presence known in other ways.<\/p>\n

Over the next 20 years, or 200 years, SETI may come to stand for sensing extraterrestrial irregularities, ranging from unusual atmospheric chemistry to higher-than-expected thermal emissions. The telltale signs of life beyond our solar system may even be associated with phenomena we haven\u2019t yet come across.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo hundred years from now, people are going to look at what we\u2019re doing, and probably laugh and say, \u2018Why weren\u2019t they looking for tachyons, or subspace communications,\u2019 or something like that,\u201d Dan Wertheimer, chief scientist for SETI at the University of California at Berkeley, joked during a presentation held at the university in conjunction with the World Conference of Science Journalists in October.<\/p>\n

Questions about the potential for life beyond our solar system are much sharper now than they were in 1997, when \u201cContact\u201d came out, largely because space surveys have established that there could be billions of potentially habitable planets out there.<\/p>\n

Less scientifically grounded developments, such as this month\u2019s revelation that the Pentagon funded secret UFO investigations until 2012, have helped sharpen interest as well.<\/p>\n

The Berkeley presentation brought together leading SETI researchers \u2014 plus one of the leaders in the study of potentially habitable exoplanets, Guillem Anglada-Escud\u00e9 of Queen Mary University of London.<\/p>\n