ET Search: Look for the Aliens Looking for Earth

Mar 02, 2016, 09:27

They write: "Our planet may be seen by distant observers against our Sun's light, allowing them to detect us".

This understanding has led René Heller, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany to suggest that if intelligent life is to be found, the search should focus on exoplanets that would be able to see Earth pass before the Sun.

The scientists have compiled a list of 82 nearby sun-like stars within the transit zone considered to have the best chance of hosting planets supporting highly-evolved life. "Such a insane setup would offer both them and us the possibility of studying each others' planets with the transit method".

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Therefore the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) should focus on areas that fall in the transit zone. The researchers identified the region in the sky from which an alien would see Earth transiting the Sun not too far from the center of the Sun-no more than a quarter of a Sun-width away from the center, to be exact. Instead, they study them by tracking their shadows as they pass in front of their own host stars. All of those billions and billions stars and planets make for a mind-bogglingly large turf to point humanity's telescopes. If we're going to get a call from beyond the stars, that narrow band of sky could be where it comes from - that's where the radio telescopes should be pointed.

That slender window in space is where we're most visible to anybody out there, so that's where we should be looking - or listening - for any kinds of extraterrestrial broadcasts or communications.

To date, researchers have discovered about 2,000 confirmed exoplanets; Kepler is responsible for more than half of these finds. If they are found to exist at just the right distance from their host star that is neither too hot or too cold (a region known as the "habitable zone") liquid water may exist on their surfaces. Or at least, we need to put ourselves in their shoes and think about where in the sky they can see us.

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This ends up being a very, very small portion of the sky, about 0.05 percent. Now, astronomers are suggesting we narrow down the search to planets that may have detected the existence of Earth-and are looking for the "intelligent aliens" who live there. If either of these two conditions aren't met, we can forget about playing galactic pen pal with anyone; the signals will be wasted on star systems that are either void of intelligent life or intelligent life has no clue someone is transmitting at them.

"They may have detected Earth's biogenic atmosphere and started to contact whoever is home", Heller said in the release. That can now serve as an immediate search target list, they argue.

A part of these planets might be discovered with the PLATO mission of the European Space Agency, scheduled for 2024. In other words, even if they do not use the exact same ways of detecting planets as we do, they are still limited by the same physical principles.

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