Research from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute has found that we may have missed transmissions from intelligent alien life for a very benign reason. SETI’s searches are focused only on very narrow signals, so the organization typically ignores signals that are too faint.
That may have been in error, though. In a paper published last week in the Astrophysical Journal from the American Astronomical Society, SETI researchers revealed their findings that space weather could be affecting alien transmissions. Phenomena like plasma density in stellar winds or coronal mass injections could “smear” a narrow transmission across multiple frequencies, making it appear less like a strong signal.
“If a signal gets broadened by its own star’s environment, it can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it’s there,” said Vishal Gajjar, an astronomer at the SETI Institute. The next step is to apply these findings to improve how SETI looks for potential alien transmissions.
