{"id":339722,"date":"2018-09-28T14:00:36","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T18:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=339722"},"modified":"2022-04-25T20:58:35","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T00:58:35","slug":"how-might-we-detect-possible-intelligent-life-beyond-earth-339722","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/how-might-we-detect-possible-intelligent-life-beyond-earth-339722\/","title":{"rendered":"How might we detect possible intelligent life beyond Earth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If all the stars in the universe are compared to the ocean, then researchers have so far only looked at a hot-tub\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much to look at, and we\u2019ve done so little of it so far,\u201d Rochester professor of astrophysics Adam Frank<\/a> told NPR\u2019s Mary Louise Kelly in a segment of All Things Considered<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIf you\u2019re interested in whether or not there are dolphins in the ocean and you\u2019ve looked at one hot tub and you didn\u2019t find a dolphin, would you then say, oh, there are no dolphins in the ocean?\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank appeared on NPR to discuss NASA\u2019s Technosignatures Workshop<\/a>, which he recently attended in Houston. At the invitation-only conference, researchers explored possible ways to discover intelligent life beyond Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cA technosignature is basically any signal or evidence you can find that there is a technology-using civilization out there,\u201d Frank said. Conference participants discussed alternatives to merely waiting for \u201cintentional signals\u201d sent by intelligent life, including looking for satellites or pollution in the atmosphere of distant planets or using heat signatures to detect possible industrial civilizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has really changed now is the discovery of exoplanets\u2014we\u2019ve found all these planets orbiting other stars whereas, 20 years ago, we didn\u2019t know whether there were any planets orbiting any other stars,\u201d Frank said. \u201cAnd that changes the whole nature of how we go about looking for them.”<\/p>\n

These are themes Frank explores in his recent book, Light Of The Stars: Alien Worlds And The Fate Of The Earth<\/em>,<\/a> which poses questions about alien civilizations, climate change, and what life on other worlds tells us about our own fate on Earth.<\/p>\n