SETI admits its search for alien life may be too narrowly focussed
- Reference: 1773120456
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/10/seti_admits_its_search_for/
- Source link:
As explained in a [1]paper and [2]post published last week, SETI points out that it has focussed its attention on narrowband signals and tries to compensate for interstellar events that might distort signals.
The organization’s new research points out that solar winds or coronal mass ejections may distort signals within aliens’ star systems. SETI therefore hasn’t been looking for likely signals that We Are Not Alone, because it assumed that alien civilizations transmitted narrowband signals.
[3]
“If a signal gets broadened by its own star’s environment, it can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it’s there, potentially helping explain some of the radio silence we’ve seen in technosignature searches,” said Dr. Vishal Gajjar, Astronomer at the SETI Institute and lead author of the paper.
[4]
[5]
SETI’s researchers made that suggestion after studying data describing signals sent by human-made probes and finding signal distortion on many missions – the paper mentions Mariner IV, Pioneers 6, 10, and 11, Helios 1 and 2, Viking missions to Mars, Mars Express, Venus Express, and Rosetta missions.
[6]SETI boldly looks beyond the Milky Way in latest alien hunt
[7]Never mind SETI and NASA, if your Ring somehow snaps ET, Amazon might give you $1M
[8]SETI: How AI-boosted satellites, robots could help search for life on other planets
[9]SETI seeks amateur astronomers to find hot Jupiter-like exoplanets
The researchers concluded that “broadening can exceed 10–100 Hz for most systems” and suggests that’s enough “to shift otherwise detectable technosignatures below the sensitivity thresholds of current search pipelines optimized for sub-Hz channel.”
The authors think their work “may offer a compelling explanation for the apparent absence of detected narrowband radio technosignatures.”
That’s a hopeful view of the universe, and one supported by the many findings of circumstances that may have already been conducive to life right here in our own solar system.
[10]
But it also leaves some room for existential angst for those who hoped their participation in the SETI@home distributed data analysis project might have made a difference, because the organization may have been tuned into the wrong cosmic radio station for decades. ®
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[1] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae3d33
[2] https://www.seti.org/news/why-seti-might-have-been-missing-alien-signals/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aa_50OI0TcvP7AoCm7-D8QAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa_50OI0TcvP7AoCm7-D8QAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aa_50OI0TcvP7AoCm7-D8QAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/29/seti_intergalactic_search_alien/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/06/ring_doorbell_alien/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/07/ai_rover_seti_assist/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/20/seti_exoplanets_campaign/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa_50OI0TcvP7AoCm7-D8QAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: What’s the bet
Or a 419.
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I thought we had already agreed that ET civilizations are silent because reasons
Here on Earth, we used to broadcast our emissions on radio. Okay, I'd like to know who could possibly pick up I Love Lucy from 50 light-years away, but that's not the point. The point is we, on Earth, are already going towards fiber for our communications. I don't think that 5G phone calls are going to be detectable after Pluto, but what do I know ?
In any case, I feel that there's a good chance that any ET civilization that wants to broadcast its existence is going to need to go the path of the variable pulsar rate, aka a powerful signal that could be confused with a wierd pulsar until some genius discovers some kind of ET Morse code and deciphers the message.
Then you have the Silent Civilization problem, where every intelligent ET society goes covert because they fear that, by broadcasting their existence, they invite invasion from a stronger ET civilization.
How's that for a Cold War, eh ?
Re: I thought we had already agreed that ET civilizations are silent because reasons
Indeed.
Any civilisation is going to start off broadcasting "spark gap" radio, which is super wide band and so SETI won't pick it up.
Then transition to broadcasting more and more on narrower and narrower bands - so SETI could pick it up. (About 1906 on Earth)
Then their broadcasts will become much more focused and lower power by using advanced antennae and electronics, to save energy.
Then most broadcasts switch to cables (whether electrical or optical), and thus become undetectable again.
Right now many countries still broadcasts FM and TV at reasonably high power, but the antenna are designed to keep all that energy close to the ground.
Uplinks to geostationary satellites are probably the best current bet as they're far away so relatively high power and pointing outwards.
Currently those are starting to transition to lasers, once they do Earth vanishes from radio.
So Earth is probably only detectable for 100-150 years. Not a very thick shell to listen for.
Still worth trying, though.
Re: I thought we had already agreed that ET civilizations are silent because reasons
Plus, more and more comms switches to code-division multiplexing CDMA, like for example all GPS stuff uses so they can all transmit on the same frequency all at once, which is deliberately indistinguishable from noise. 4G 5G &c phones too - you're all on the same band, with your own secret, well mutually orthogonal, pattern for decoding the signals.
The period of emitting coherent obvious radio signals is quite brief... mains hum might remain the one dominant one?
I think the phrase for the posited deliberate terrified hiding is "Dark Forest Deterrence" or was it Dark Forest Sociology before they got to the deterrence stage...? (Three Body Problem)
More Power!
When I was studying engineering at university four decades ago I was told that the difference between electronics and electrical engineering was that, in electrical engineering, anything less than a kilowatt is basically noise.
For a long time I've thought that SETI is looking at the wrong frequencies. The most powerful transmissions on Earth are at frequencies of 50Hz and 60Hz, leaking from our power grids.
These frequencies are somewhat attenuated by our ionosphere but that effect varies according to solar output - and the difference in power between grid and broadcast is so huge they're still worth searching for.
The biggest problem would be shielding the detector from Earth's emissions. Maybe put it on the dark side of the Moon?
Re: More Power!
When I was studying engineering at university four decades ago I was told that the difference between electronics and electrical engineering was that, in electrical engineering, anything less than a kilowatt is basically noise.
And to a power engineer anything below 1kV AC / 1.5 kV DC is considered "low voltage" (in practice usually in the 110-480V region).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_voltage
What’s the bet
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