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13.8 — February 7, 2025
At what distance could a “twin Earth” detect our signals?
A new SETI study shows how far the field of technosignatures has come.
The Earth is partially illuminated against a dark space background, showing glowing city lights
and a blue atmosphere.
Credit: dimazel / Adobe Stock
Key Takeaways
A new study explores how far away an Earth-like civilization — using present-day technology —
could detect Earth’s technosignatures, such as planetary radar, deep-space transmissions, and
atmospheric pollution. The findings reveal that while some signals, like planetary radar, could be
detected from thousands of light-years away, others, like city lights, remain visible only at very
close distances. The research establishes a baseline for detecting Earth-like civilizations and
highlights how future advancements could expand our ability to both find and be found in the
cosmos.
Adam Frank
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%20Earth”%20detect%20our%20signals?
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Just over 60 years ago, Frank Drake turned a radio telescope at two stars and “listened” for
signals of an alien civilization. That experiment marked the beginning of the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI. The stars Drake chose were nearby, residing just about 10
light-years away. He made that choice for a good reason: His calculations showed that this was
the distance Earth’s own signals, emitted by human technology at the time, could be detected
with his state-of-the-art (at that time) radio telescope. Using present-day Earth technology as a
standard for both a source and receiver was good science and showed that SETI could be
founded on solid scientific assumptions: Begin with what you know is possible.
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How much has changed since Drake ran those epoch-making experiments? Six decades later,
progress in astronomy has allowed the long-marginalized SETI to be transformed into the robust
field known as “technosignatures.” With the search for civilizations among the stars heating up,
what are the current standards for detecting an alien planet with similar technological
capacities? In other words, if Drake were to redo his experiment now, how far out should he have
searched — and what if he used different kinds of telescopes?
In a paper published this week, a team of scientists has answered exactly that question. The
answers show just how far the field of technosignatures has come (full disclosure, I was happy
to be part of the effort).
Updating Drake’s experiment
The paper is titled “Earth Detecting Earth: At What Distance Could Earth’s Constellation of
Technosignatures Be Detected with Present-day Technology.” The project was led by Sofia
Sheikh, a postdoctoral fellow at the SETI Institute and a member of our NASA-funded
Categorizing Atmospheric Technosignatures (CATS) project. The paper was part of the second
round of funding for CATS (the first NASA effort to look for signatures of technology from
exoplanets and their atmospheres). Its publication marked a major milestone in setting the field
of technosignatures on firm footing.
There are many ways human civilization on Earth could be detected from a distance: city lights;
atmospheric pollutants detected in our atmosphere; the presence of orbiting satellites; radio
signals from cell-phone networks; radar signals used to study other planets in our own solar
system. Each of these could be considered a technosignature. But how far out in space could
each be detected if you only had the same technologies we possess today? Do you need to be
actually orbiting the Earth looking down to find them or could you see them from the Sun’s
nearest neighbor star, Proxima Centauri (which is 4.2 light-years away)? By conducting a
comprehensive study of Earth’s many technosignatures, the Shiekh-led study established an
important new baseline for the field.
