Related papers: ET Probes: Looking Here as Well as There
There are at least three compelling reasons for the human race to initiate a major programme to explore and better understand the 'minor planets' of the Solar System: (1) Enhancing scientific knowledge; (2) Mitigating the impact hazard; and…
The transmission rate of communication between radio telescopes on Earth and extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) is here calculated up to distances of 1000 light years. Both phase-shift-keying (PSK) and frequency-shift keying (FSK)…
As our ability to undertake more powerful Searches for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) grows, so does interest in the more controversial endeavour of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI). METI proponents point to the SETI…
The search for extraterrestrial communication has mainly focused on microwave photons since the 1950s. We compare other high speed information carriers to photons, such as electrons, protons, and neutrinos, gravitational waves, inscribed…
Radio SETI experiments aim to test the hypothesis that extraterrestrial civilizations emit detectable signals from communication, propulsion, or other technologies. The unprecedented capabilities of next generation radio telescopes,…
The primary challenge of rocket propulsion is the burden of needing to accelerate the spacecraft's own fuel, resulting in only a logarithmic gain in maximum speed as propellant is added to the spacecraft. Light sails offer an attractive…
Numerous advantages may accrue to ET from the use of probes for the conveyance of information relative to the alternative of beaming information electromagnetically from its home star system. However, probes would benefit from a…
Due to their extremely small luminosity compared to the stars they orbit, planets outside our own Solar System are extraordinarily difficult to detect directly in optical light. Careful photometric monitoring of distant stars, however, can…
Ultra Fast Astronomy is a new frontier becoming enabled by improved detector technology allowing discovery of optical transients on millisecond to nanosecond time scales. These may reveal counterparts of energetic processes such as fast…
Long baseline radio interferometers can provide some interesting opportunities for future SETI searches. Known advantages (compared to single dishes or beam-formed arrays), include the large reduction in false-positives due to the…
Two opposing tendencies paradoxically coexist in terrestrial consciousness -- the insistent quest for intelligent signals from other civilizations and the persistent aversion to any attempts to transmit such signals from Earth toward…
Abridged: The interest towards searches for extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) was boosted by the discovery of thousands of exoplanets. We turn to the classification of ETCs for new considerations that may help to design better…
Direct detection and characterization of Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars is a core task for evaluating the prevalence of habitability and life in the Universe. Here, we discuss a promising option for achieving this goal, which is…
Extraterrestrial technology may exist in the Solar System without our knowledge. This is because the vastness of space, combined with our limited searches to date, implies that any remote unpiloted exploratory probes of extraterrestrial…
Exoplanetary systems are prime targets for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). With the recent uptick in the identification of candidate and confirmed exoplanets through the work of missions like the Transiting Exoplanet…
It is known that the shape of a planet (oblateness, rings, etc.) slightly modifies the shape of the transit light curve. The forthcoming space missions (Corot, Kepler), able to detect the transit of Earth-like planets, could a fortiori also…
As a major approach to looking for life beyond the Earth, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is committed to detecting technosignatures such as engineered radio signals that are indicative of technologically capable life.…
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a research activity that started in the late 1950s, predating the arrival of "Big History" and "Astrobiology" by several decades. Many elements first developed as part of the original…
The searches for other life and for intelligence are fundamental problems that science faces today. Most searches so far have been focused on radio, but optical laser communication is an alternative, well suited for a ground-based…
While SETI is often thought of as a part of radio astronomy with optical SETI, artifact SETI, METI, and other approaches to finding intelligent life considered to be allied fields, SETI is better understood as an interdisciplinary field…