Here’s how NASA and the Webb Space Telescope could flush out aliens

The mission of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is just beginning, but its program is already full! The new observatory launched by the Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA) inserted into orbit around Lagrange point L2located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, on January 24, 2022. If the deployment of its instruments had begun during its forwarding in space, the results of the first calibrations have been known since February 11. So the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) conducted thestar gazing HD 84406. the awesome 6.5 meter mirror in diameter seems indeed functional, and will be able to examine nebulae, galaxies and exoplanets over the next few months.

Engineers from NASA, ESA and Northrop Grumman insisted: the capabilities of the JWST should change the future of space observation, thanks to instruments of incredible precision. Regarding the observation of exoplanets, James-Webb will be able to collect data on theatmosphere of some of these distant worlds, providing tools for scientists to study the composition of said planets. As the review points out Universe Today, in an article published on February 21, the JWST will even be able to analyze the level of air pollution. A track to discover new civilizations?

Observing pollution to detect a civilization

The article of Universe Today is based on a study published on February 11 on ArXiv, explaining that the detection of certain chemical signatures could indicate the presence of potentially industrial civilizations. Chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs), fluorinated gas mainly used in refrigeration, is in the sights of astrophysicists in search of extraterrestrial life. On Earth, CFCs cause an alteration of the atmosphere, in particular damaging the ozone layer. Some countries have also limited their use of CFCs in order to slow down the heavy pollution resulting from them.

If an industrially developed civilization exists on an exoplanet, searching for traces of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere could theoretically suggest the existence of such life. The many instruments deployed on the JWST will be as many tools to carry out these detections thanks to different methods such as spectroscopy.

Spectroscopy to study distant worlds

James-Webb will thus be able analyze the atmosphere of exoplanets in just a few hours, and in particular those of potentially habitable planets. NASA said that the Trappist-1 system would be a good candidate for these observations. Located at 40.5 light years from Earth, Trappist-1 is a red dwarf around which seven rocky planets of varying sizes orbit. Thanks to the Nirspec instrument, the JWST will carry out spectroscopies, i.e. the study of the spectrum electromagnetic of certain celestial bodies. Regarding Trappist-1 (and other exoplanet systems), the space telescope will detect potential biosignatures on the planets located in the habitable zone of their star. The formidable precision of the JWST will be a considerable advantage for the field of planetology: a simple pixel of photography imaged by the telescope could theoretically be enough to determine if a form of life has developed on the surface of an exoplanet.

Detecting the existence of extraterrestrials on a world outside the Solar System is still a distant task, but the observations of the James-Webb as part of its main mission, expected by the general public and scientists, will begin on the horizon of summer 2022.

NASA wants to track aliens via air pollution on their planet

Article of Nathalie Mayerpublished on February 15, 2021

While the rover Perseverance prepares to search for traces of microscopic life on Mars, NASA researchers seek an answer to the question “Are we alone? » are already exploring other avenues. They are trying to identify new technosignatures that could betray the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations. So why not, atmospheric pollution with dioxide ofnitrogen (NO₂)?

From nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), many sources can emit it. The oceans, the volcanoesthe fuels fossils. Corn, “on Earth, the largest share of NO emissions₂ comes from human activity. Up to 76% of total emissionsassures Ravi Kopparapu, researcher at the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA, in a NASA press release. This is why we believe that observing NO₂ in the atmosphere of a habitable exoplanet could indicate the presence of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization”.

This is the first time that this primary pollutant has been considered as a possible technosignature. Before that, researchers had already seen in another pollutant, a probable technosignature: chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). But these are very specific engineered chemicals that said advanced extraterrestrial civilizations might not use. While the NO₂ appears as a by-product of any combustion.

Nitrogen dioxide pollution not so easy to detect

Nitrogen dioxide can be detected by the fact that it absorbs certain wavelengths light. I’researchers study from NASA shows as well as a extraterrestrial civilization producing the same amount of NO₂ that humanity could be detected up to 30 light years from Earth. This would still require 400 hours of observations in the visible spectrum.

The astronomers also suggest that the chances of detecting NO₂ are better in the direction of stars cooler than our Sun. K- and M-type stars. These, in fact, produce less radiation ultraviolet which break the bonds of nitrogen dioxide. However, care must be taken to clearly distinguish the NO₂ emitted naturally from that emitted by industrial activities. And don’t be fooled by the presence of clouds and D’aerosols in the atmosphere ofstudied exoplanet. These could indeed absorb light at the same wavelengths as nitrogen dioxide.

James Webb Telescope Could Detect Polluting ETs

The idea had already been launched two years ago by a group of young exobiologists but it has just been taken up by experienced astrophysicists. It should be possible to discover the existence of an extraterrestrial technological civilization by detecting CFCs and other greenhouse gas non-natural ones that she would have used to terraform an exoplanet. To do this, it would suffice to analyze the composition of its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) or its successors.

Article of Laurent Sacco published on 07/28/2014

We already know of the existence of more than 1,800 exoplanets in our Galaxy and everything indicates that we are still only at the very beginning of the exploration of these worlds in the Milky Way. As Xavier Delfosse explained to us, the recent questioning of the existence of the potentially habitable super-Earth Gliese 581 d does not affect previous estimates which indicated that there must be billions of these stars in the Galaxy. More than ever, theastrophysics leads us to consider the possibility not only that there is another form of life in theuniverse but also another technological civilization like ours.

Its detection would have several repercussions on our civilization. It could teach us, for example, that it is possible to survive the challenges that humanity will face in the 21st^and century, which could lead to our demise. But how to have a proof of the existence of an extraterrestrial civilization? One could, of course, and this is what the program does setisearch for shows radio which are undoubtedly the product of a technology. Another idea recently put forward and which was taken up by astrophysicists Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, Avi Loeb and Henry Linen from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has just been the subject of a publication filed on arxiv.

The three researchers have, in fact, come to the conclusion that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) would be able to detect concentrations of two chlorofluorocarbons (in this case CF4 and CCl3F) ten times higher than those of the Earth’s atmosphere in those of certain exoplanets. For that they would have to be in orbit around white dwarfs. We know that there are indeed some and some could be in the habitable zone. But what is the connection with an ET civilization?

Terraforming or extraterrestrial geoengineering

As far as we know, there are no natural processes capable of significantly enriching the atmosphere of a telluric planet in chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). If we found it, it would therefore necessarily be a technosignature. It could be, for example, the remains of a period when an extraterrestrial civilization did not care about its environment. Since these two CFCs have durations of life of about 50,000 years, they could therefore allow the atmosphere of an exoplanet to keep the memory of the turbulent past of this civilization even after its extinction. Most likely, CFCs would have been massively and deliberately released to terraform a planet that was too cold to support large amounts of water. liquid. It could also be a strategy adopted by the ET civilization to keep its planet habitable due to the cooling of its host star.

In theory, we could also look for this type of technosignature for exoplanets in orbit around solar-type stars but, according to the three astrophysicists, we would have to wait for the generation of telescopes that will succeed the JWST.