Search for Alien Technosignatures Begins Beyond the Milky Way

Astronomers have launched an unprecedented search for “technosignatures”—indications of technology from highly advanced civilizations—in galaxies far beyond the Milky Way.

Technosignatures refer to evidence of technology, past or present, that could indirectly confirm the existence of intelligent life in distant star systems.

Potential technosignatures might include artificial light sources, solar energy collectors, massive space structures, or clusters of satellites.

While searches for technosignatures have been conducted before, this is the first attempt to search outside our own galaxy. The effort involves a radio telescope array in Australia, which has the capability to scan for signs of life not only within the Milky Way but also across 2,800 additional galaxies.

The initiative is a collaborative effort between the SETI Institute, the Berkeley SETI Research Center, and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

It employs the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a network of 4,096 radio antennas arranged in 256 grids in Western Australia’s remote outback.

This isn’t the MWA’s first search for extraterrestrial intelligence. In 2020, the array was used for one of the most comprehensive hunts for alien technology to date.

That mission targeted a region near the constellation Vela, which contains over 10 million stars. Over 17 hours, the system searched for low-frequency signals, but no evidence of intelligent life was detected.