SETI admits its search for alien life may be too narrowly focussed

The SETI Institute, the nonprofit that conducts a search for extraterrestrial intelligence by examining radio waves for artefacts that are unlikely to be the result of natural processes, thinks it may have been going about it the wrong way.

As explained in a paper and post published last week, SETI points out that it has focussed its attention on narrowband signals and tries to compensate for interstellar events that might distort signals.

The organization’s new research points out that solar winds or coronal mass ejections may distort signals within aliens’ star systems. SETI therefore hasn’t been looking for likely signals that We Are Not Alone, because it assumed that alien civilizations transmitted narrowband signals.

“If a signal gets broadened by its own star’s environment, it can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it’s there, potentially helping explain some of the radio silence we’ve seen ...