The Search for Technosignatures: a Review of Possibilities
Authors/Creators
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Vidal, Clément
(Contact person)1
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Benjamin L. Fields
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Sowinski, Damian2
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Elowitz, Mark3
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Bartlett, Stuart4
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Terrile, Richard5
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Ellery, Alex6
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Bibas, Daliah
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Mastrogiovanni, Armando
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Döbler, Niklas A.7
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Singla, Manika
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DeMarines, Julia
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Fisher, Theresa8
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Uno, Yuri
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Turner, Jake9
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Sneed, Evan10
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Huggahalli, Advait
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Li, Megan Grace11
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Li, Zhuofu
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Huston, Macy10
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Saide, Ramiro
- 1. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
-
2.
University of Rochester
- 3. SETI Institute Affiliate Status
-
4.
California Institute of Technology
-
5.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
-
6.
Carleton University
-
7.
University of Bamberg
-
8.
University of Arizona
-
9.
Cornell University
-
10.
University of California, Berkeley
- 11. UCLA
Description
This paper aims to review the diverse range of technosignatures that have been proposed in the
literature. We organize the review by scales, starting carefully from Earth, then zooming out to
Earth’s orbit, the solar system, including the Moon, the Earth-Moon Lagrange points, the inner
solar system, the asteroid belt, interstellar objects, the outer solar system, the Kuiper belt, the solar
gravitational lens region, and the Oort cloud. We then introduce the Kardashev and Barrow scale
before exploring exoplanetary technosignatures, from surface, atmospheric to orbital sources. We next
consider stellar technosignatures that may involve massive energy utilization, stellar modification or
stellar pollution, and end with a section about compact objects. We then review attempts to detect
interstellar communication, and discuss many dimensions of the search space from first principles. Then
we consider interstellar travel technosignatures, and end with galactic, extragalactic and universal
signatures. We end with a discussion about synergies between biosignatures and technosignatures
searches, anomaly detection, multimodal strategies, instruments for detecting technosignatures, how
to evaluate and prioritize the search, as well as epistemological issues.
Files
Vidal et al 2026 - The Search for Technosignatures - a Review of Possibilities.pdf
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