Scientists have taken a close look at our activity within the solar system to determine where to look for signals from intelligent alien life. The findings apply if those extraterrestrials explore their own cosmic backyards in a way similar to us.
A team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Penn State University looked at when and where human transmissions would be most detectable by intelligent life outside the solar system. This helped to build patterns that could be employed by SETI in its hunt for signs of intelligent life or "technosignatures" beyond the solar system.
"Humans are predominantly communicating with the spacecraft and probes we have sent to study other planets like Mars," team leader and Penn State Eberly College of Science researcher said in a statement. "But a planet like Mars does not block the entire transmission, so a distant spacecraft or planet positioned along the path of these interplanetary communications could potentially detect the spillover; that would occur when Earth and another solar system planet align from their perspective. This suggests that we should look for alignment of planets outside of our solar system when searching for extraterrestrial communications."
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