| NASA Funds Search for Alien 'Technosignatures'
Astronomers are gearing up to search the cosmos for signs of technologically advanced alien civilizations. The new search, which is being undertaken as part of a collaboration between the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard and Smithsonian and the University of Rochester, will benefit from the first grant NASA has ever awarded to seek out evidence of non-radio technosignatures. "Technosignatures relate to signatures of advanced alien technologies similar to, or perhaps more sophisticated than, what we possess," said Prof Avi Loeb. "Such signatures might include industrial pollution of atmospheres, city lights, photovoltaic cells (solar panels), megastructures, or swarms of satellites." One of the advantages this new study will have over previous efforts is the fact that astronomers have been able to identify many potentially habitable extrasolar planets over the last few years. "The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has always faced the challenge of figuring out where to