The SETI Institute uses a worldwide network of large radio telescopes to seek signals that might hold patterns indicating intelligent communication. But the problem with this particular method to search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that the signal could be blocked. Electromagnetic waves, whether visible light or radio, could encounter planets, stars, or other cosmic objects that block the waves from reaching our instruments on Earth.
The solution could be to add a new way to search the skies for aliens, one scientist proposes. Harvard University’s astrophysicist, Avi Loeb, who is joining New York-based physics think tank Applied Physics, along with astrophysicist Shaun D. B. Fell of Heidelberg University in Germany, thinks there’s a novel way to find potential alien technosignatures.
Loeb and Fell, both experts on gravitational waves, will work with Applied Physics to develop practical technologies for detecting certain kinds of objects and signals from space. Gravitational waves are generated when distant black holes or neutron stars collide. Like ripples in a pond when a rock hits it, the gravitational disturbance starts large at the point of collision, but spreads outward in smaller and smaller ripples.
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