Project Ozma was the first search for SETI. The campaign was led by Frank Drake and relied on the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope to listen to radio transmissions. Thanks to improved data analysis and international collaboration, the field of SETI has become more sophisticated since then. Advances in exoplanet studies will benefit SETI in the future.
There are people who recommend looking for technological activity here at home. The Galileo Project is dedicated to studying unknown aerial phenomena and is one of the examples. The Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center is devoted to furthering SETI through the search for technosignatures. Future SETI efforts should look for extraterrestrial technology in our Solar System according to a recent paper.
Researchers from Penn State University, the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, the SETI Institute, and the Planetary Science Institute are part of the PSETI Center. The paper they recently authored was the subject of a report that was presented at the First Penn State SETI Symposium.
The field of SETI has mostly focused on observing distant star systems for signs of technological activity. Since it is the most effective communication method grounded in well known physics, these surveys have searched for signs of radio transmissions. SETI researchers hope to find other means of communication, such as directed energy, in the future. The possibilities were outlined in NASA's technosignature report.
There is a growing movement among SETI researchers that want to find extraterrestrial intelligence here at home. The lead author of the report is Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra, the senior research investigator at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. Haqq-Misra focuses on the conditions that allow life to emerge and thrive in the Universe and the possibility of detecting life on other planets through signs of biological activity. He told Universe Today.
Only a few SETI searches have looked for technosignatures in our own solar system. There is a chance that technosignatures could be found in the Solar System.
The types of technosignatures we should be looking for have been the focus of Haqq-Misra's work for a long time. He was part of a NASA-funded study in 2020 along with Prof. Adam Frank of the University of Rochester and others. The aim of the study was to find traces of chlorofluorocarbons in exoplanet atmospheres and large array of solar panels
Earlier this year, Haqq-Misra, Frank, Wright, Lingam, and other colleagues wrote a study about how the James Webb Space Telescope could look for signs of atmospheric pollution in order to find extraterrestrial civilization. SETI research needs to consider technological activity and objects that could be in our Solar System. The recent detection of 2I/Borisov two years after it flew by Earth has given a boost to such efforts.
Astronomers had suspected for a while that ISOs enter the Solar System on a regular basis. Some of these visitors are periodically captured by the Solar System and it was shown that some of them could be found today. Multiple proposals have been made in the last year for missions that could rendezvous with Oumuamua or intercept future ISOs. The scientific returns would be amazing if one of these ISOs were artificial.
If there are Von Neumann probes in the Solar System, low-cost missions could be used to find them. Haqq-Misra said what form these missions could take and how they could look for technosignatures.
“Orbiters, rovers, and probes that explore planetary bodies would be well-suited to constrain the presence of technosignatures on surfaces. Missions that observe small bodies such as asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects would be ideal for looking for free-floating or orbiting artifacts in space. Ground- and space-based observatories might also be able to help with the search.”
The National Research Council drafted the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey in the early 20th century. There are several missions recommended by the Survey for the coming decade, such as a UOP, an Enceladus landers, and crewed explorations of the Moon and Mars. The European Space Agency and the Japan Aeronautical Exploration Agency are both working on ISO intercept missions. As is stated in the survey.
The discovery rate of ISOs will increase dramatically. We will be able to compare the ISOs to the small body populations in the Solar System by discovering and analyzing additional ISOs. Haqq-Misra and his colleagues note in their report that such a mission would give them an opportunity to limit the presence of technosignatures on ISOs. The mission architecture would not need to be changed.
Scientists and mission planners are encouraged to consider the kind of technosignature science they can already do with their existing solar system exploration program. There are a number of ways in which the recommendations of the Decadal Survey can advance technosignature science. The Mars Exploration Program can place limits on technosignatures on the surface of Mars by analyzing the high-resolution images that arise from other science on Mars.
The goals of the report are similar to those of the Galileo Project, which will rely on astronomy, meteorology, and space-based observations. Once it begins its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will detect ISOs at a rate of a couple per month. The number of known ISOs is expected to increase due to the many upcoming observatories.
Haqq-Misra and his team hope that their paper will inspire aspiring SETI researchers and veterans to look outside the box. In the future, missions destined for locations throughout the Solar System could become frontline SETI missions. Haqq-Misra summed it up.
“We hope that our report will encourage scientists, mission planners, and administrators to consider the relevance of technosignature science to their existing and planned missions. We have many capabilities for constraining the prevalence of technosignatures in the solar system, and so it is worth considering the possibility as we continue to explore the Solar System.”
There are a lot of places where extraterrestrials might linger. Between Jupiter and Neptune is where the ISOs are most likely to be found. The smart money says probes and Von Neumann machines would reside in the Oort Cloud. There could be a lot of probes looking for biosignatures in our Solar System.
ArXiv is further reading.
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