Intelligence & Language Archives

A plot of a civilisation’s Technical Level (K) versus time. The window of detection is defined as the area under the growth lines that intersect with the human detection threshold. This is illustrated for the “rapid growth” curve (blue). -- astro-ph.IM

Astrobiology (general), Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

How Technological Acceleration Shrinks SETI’s Narrow Detection Window

by Keith CowingOctober 2, 2025

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has historically focused on detecting electromagnetic technosignatures, implicitly assuming that alien civilisations are biological and technologically analogous to ourselves.

[L] akospapp42 asks "What if someone out there found the Voyager Golden Record?" [R] My wife and I found it at the Air and Space Museum in DC

Astrobiology (general), Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, Science Fiction, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues, Status Report

Reflections On The Voyager Record

by Keith CowingSeptember 27, 2025

Editor’s note: In 1977 The twin Voyager spacecraft left Earth. They are now in interstellar space. On board are two records containing imagery and music representing humanity. Below are two […]

An artist’s impression of our Milky Way Galaxy, showing the location of the Sun. Our Solar System is about 27,000 light years from the centre of the galaxy. The nearest technological species could be 33,000 light years away. Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC–Caltech). Larger image

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Intelligence & Language, Press Release, SETI & Technosignatures

How Common Are Biological ETIs in the Galaxy?

by Keith CowingSeptember 12, 2025September 12, 2025

The closest technological species to us in the Milky Way galaxy could be 33,000 light years away and their civilisation would have to be at least 280,000 years, and possibly […]

Schematic of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system. The seven known planets are shown orbiting the central star. The semi-transparent green annulus marks the optimistic habitable zone, which contains planets e, f, and g the primary targets of this search. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

A Deep SETI Search For Technosignatures In The TRAPPIST-1 System With FAST

by Keith CowingSeptember 10, 2025September 10, 2025

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is one of its five key science objectives.

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Intelligence & Language, Press Release, SETI & Technosignatures

IAU 404: Advancing The Search For Technosignatures

by Keith CowingAugust 27, 2025August 27, 2025

Abstract submission is now open for IAU symposium #404: Advancing the Search for Technosignatures, which will take place 2-6 March 2026 online everywhere. Submit your abstract using the link below. […]

Color-color plot for asteroids from Sergeyev & Carry (2021), based on the parameter space defined by Ivezi´c et al. (2001) to identify asteroid families and surface compositions. The most likely asteroid family membership for each object determined by Sergeyev & Carry (2021) is noted by point color, and the figure legend. Contours show a kernel density estimator of the density of all 90,893 asteroids in this sample in this space. The three known ISOs show different colors, but are all consistent with populations of known solar system objects. We also show the measured color of the SpaceX Roadster from DES. -- astro-ph.IM

Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Technosignature Searches Of Interstellar Objects

by Keith CowingAugust 26, 2025

With the discovery of the third confirmed interstellar object (ISO), 3I/ATLAS, we have entered a new phase in the exploration of these long-predicted objects.

In a new study, researchers from Penn State and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed human deep space communications and found that human transmissions are frequently directed toward our own spacecrafts near Mars (lower left), the sun and other planets. Because planets like Mars do not block the entire signal, an extraterrestrial intelligence positioned along the path of interplanetary communications — when the planets align form their perspective — could potentially detect the spillover. This suggests that humans should look to planetary alignments outside of the solar system when searching for signatures of extraterrestrial communications. Credit: Zayna Sheikh. All Rights Reserved. source at PSU

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, Press Release, SETI & Technosignatures

If Aliens Explore Space Like Us, We Should Look For Their Calls To Other Planets

by Keith CowingAugust 21, 2025August 21, 2025

If an extraterrestrial intelligence were looking for signs of human communications, when and where should they look? In a new study, researchers at Penn State and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory […]

A computer-generated rendition of a bacteriophage. Credit: NIAID

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrobiology (general), Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Intelligence & Language, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Status Report

Astrovirology, Astrobiology, Artificial Intelligence: Extra-Solar System Investigations

by Keith CowingAugust 18, 2025August 18, 2025

This chapter attempts to encompass and tackle a large problem in Astrovirology and Astrobiology. There is a huge anthropomorphic prejudice that although life is unlikely, the just-right Goldilocks terrestrial conditions […]

The image shows the possible positions of the Wow! Signal in relation to the galactic Hi column density from HI4PI (HI4PI Collaboration et al. 2016). Gray boxes indicate the earlier reported positions (Ehman 1998), while the revised positions are marked with yellow boxes, each accompanied by its respective coordinates. -- astro-ph.HE

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Intelligence & Language, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Arecibo Wow! II: Revised Properties Of The Wow! Signal From Archival Ohio SETI Data

by Keith CowingAugust 15, 2025August 15, 2025

The Wow! Signal, detected in 1977 by the Ohio State University SETI project, remains one of the most intriguing unexplained radio transients. The most recent significant revision of its properties […]

A diagram of the worldbuilding pipeline developed for this study. The pipeline begins with the global and technology factors that define each scenario from Table 5 and other assumptions common to all scenarios (gray). These inputs are given to the Claude LLM, which then generates a description of the world (blue). Additional narrative and descriptions of the planetary bodies are added manually (purple). This information provides the basis for a human needs assessment that determines the different uses of land on each planetary body (orange). These results are used to describe the physical technosphere and potentially detectable technosignatures (yellow), which provide recommendations for technosignature detection (green). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

Projections Of Earth’s Technosphere: Scenario Modeling, Worldbuilding, And Overview Of Remotely Detectable Technosignatures

by Keith CowingJuly 28, 2025July 28, 2025

This study uses methods from futures studies to develop a set of ten self-consistent scenarios for Earth’s 1000-year future, which can serve as examples for defining technosignature search strategies.

Intelligence & Language

How Technological Acceleration Shrinks SETI’s Narrow Detection Window

Reflections On The Voyager Record

How Common Are Biological ETIs in the Galaxy?

A Deep SETI Search For Technosignatures In The TRAPPIST-1 System With FAST

IAU 404: Advancing The Search For Technosignatures

Technosignature Searches Of Interstellar Objects

If Aliens Explore Space Like Us, We Should Look For Their Calls To Other Planets

Astrovirology, Astrobiology, Artificial Intelligence: Extra-Solar System Investigations

Arecibo Wow! II: Revised Properties Of The Wow! Signal From Archival Ohio SETI Data

Projections Of Earth’s Technosphere: Scenario Modeling, Worldbuilding, And Overview Of Remotely Detectable Technosignatures

Inspecting A Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer (DRAMS) Transducer

NASA Explores Potential Commercial Servicing for Hubble Telescope

The Fate of Ice Sheets on Near-Synchronously Rotating Land Planets

Extraterrestrial Chemical Boundary Conditions and Evolutionary Opportunity Space on Early Earth

Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS) III. CH3OH isotopic fractionation in the low-mass protostar BHR71-IRS1