Of all the questions that remain unanswered by science, the question about life in the Universe is the one that captures our interest the most. In exploring alien civilization, NASA established the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program to discover signs of intelligent life outside the Earth.
In a recent study, experts from the SETI Institute, Berkeley SETI Research Center, and the University of Washington reported an exciting development in identifying signals from advanced civilizations. Using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, they monitor the SETI ellipsoid to look for alien technosignatures. The result of their study is discussed in the paper "Searching the SN 1987A SETI Ellipsoid with TESS."
In our efforts to look for signs of alien civilization, scientists acknowledge that the first confirmed proof of life outside the Earth might not involve biological evidence. Scientists might intercept communication signals through electromagnetic waves, such as radio, or even find telescopic evidence of engineering skills.
Most investigations focus on non-technological life, but NASA scientists have also begun considering what technosignatures might look like. Technosignatures refer to potentially detectable signatures and signals that indicate the presence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. They are a subset of the larger and far more mature search for biosignatures, or the evidence of microbial or other forms of life that might exist on some known exoplanets.
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