SETI Search Methods

On the page Why No First Contact? it was established that we will probably not be able to travel to the home planet of any newly discovered ascension species, nor can they come to Earth and that we'll probably not be able to communicate with each other. These are what we can't do.

Here's What Can We Do...

1 - We Look for Planets with an Oxygen Atmosphere

We currently have the ability to detect exoplanets that is, planets orbiting stars other than our own. This is primarily done by monitoring a stable, non-variable star's light output for any brightness changes. What we're looking for is a temporary and very small reduction, in that light output. This happens when a planet that we can't see is in orbit around a star and it crosses its disk.

As of February 1, 2020, there are 4,173 confirmed exoplanets in 3,096 star systems, with 678 of these systems having more than one planet.

Looking for exoplanets tells us...

That there are other planets out there. This means more chances for finding another Earth-like planet and more chances of finding an ascension species like ourselves.
As we already know the approximate diameter of the star being studied and from the star's reduction in light output we can then calculate the diameter of the new planet. Complex life needs planets of the correct size.
By timing the planet's transit across the star's disk we can calculate the distance from its star at that point in its orbit. We know the energy output of a star from its spectrum and now knowing the planet's solar distance we can then calculate the planet's surface temperature. Is that temperature suitable for potential life?
Does the transiting planet have an atmosphere, if so is it a breathable oxygen atmosphere? The ability to detected and measure distant atmospheres has just been developed, though on a limited scale. This is an exciting and expanding technology that holds great promise.

Here's how we can find breathable oxygen atmospheres...

When an exoplanet crosses the disk of its star it does more than just block a little of its light. If a transitting exoplanet has an atmosphere tiny changes in a star's spectrum will occur because a small amount of the star's light will travel through the planet's atmosphere creating signature emission and/or absorption bands. The frequencies of these bands will be unique to the gases that comprise the transiting planet's atmosphere.

What we're looking for of course are planets with an oxygen atmosphere. Because of oxygen's highly reactive properties, a breathable oxygen atmosphere on a planet does not occur organically. On Earth, it's created by living organisms in a biosphere. If we find a breathable oxygen atmosphere this way we probably will have found a planet with a lot of life on it.

2 - We Listen to Our Galaxy

The immense amount of radio wave travel time probably prevents us from communicating with any ascension species. What we can do instead is to listen to our galaxy...

An ascension species elsewhere will be radio noisy. That “noise” will be extremely weak and almost all of it will be broadband. If we can determine the level of the “natural” broadband noise any additional noise added to that must be coming from artificial sources meaning, intelligent life. However, these signals will still be received as noise and are incapable of being decoded.
Ascension species will create patterns to their narrow-bandwidth radio signals (some patterns like pulsars are natural). These are the signals we use to communicate with. To receive these kinds of galactic radio signals we will have to...
- Operate in an extremely radio-quiet location like the far side of the Moon. As lunar craters are roughly parabolic in shape a very high-gain but non-directional receiver, could be suspended at the “focus” of a well-chosen crater. We could also use steerable but less sensitive antennas in this ultra radio-quiet environment.
- Use narrow or very narrow bandwidths.
- Employ high-speed radio receivers that can scan or monitor thousands of different frequencies simultaneously.
- Use highly directional high gain antennas that look in areas of the sky away from the galactic core and parallel to the galactic axis.
- Use receivers operating at a temperature near absolute zero so as to reduce electronic thermal noise.
- Use AI to “listen” for any non-natural transmission pattern that stands out from the background radio noise.
- Use radio listening frequencies that...
  - We think an ascension species will transmit on.
  - Are not absorbed by planetary atmospheres.
  - Use frequencies that represent various common elements like hydrogen and oxygen, etc. For example, the hydrogen line (1420.40575 MHz) which is the precession frequency of neutral hydrogen atoms, the most abundant substance in the universe.
  - Operate on frequencies away from any natural broadband noise, that is from 1 to 10 GHz.

3 - We Search for Massive Geo-Engineering Signs

This has the advantage of detecting present or past ascension species much like how the pyramids survive in today's modern world. We can look for signs that a civilization has altered its environment on a massive scale

This could include...

Spinning a neutron star to emit messages like an interstellar beacon.
The building of a Dyson Sphere that converts a star's energy into an unnatural infrared signature.
Evidence of massive physical alteration of their environment much like a dammed river's reservoir is visible from space.
Moving stars into bizarre or highly geometric alignments that are unlikely to occur in nature.

4 - We Search Mathematically

A mathematical search is the purpose of this website. It is the easiest and fastest way that at least partially answers the question, “Are We Alone?”

To use a mathematical search for intelligent life we need to...

Identify the environmental variables under which intelligent life can potentially exist.
Quantify the values of those variables that are needed for intelligent life to form and be maintained.
Measure the quantified availability of those variables in our galaxy.
Construct a formula whose output defines the probabilistic sum of those variables based on their measured values.

With the development of the updated equation, it can mathematically calculate intelligent life elsewhere in our galaxy. This website does just that. However, an accurate value of many of the new equation's variables are simply unknown.

The new equation's 20 variables fall into the following categories of accuracy...

Just two variables have been measured and whose values are known.
Twelve variables have values have been scientifically estimated.
Six variables have values that are entirely unknown.

To improve the equation's accuracy we need to have a much better understanding of our own Milky Way galaxy. The best thing we can currently do to better identify ascension species elsewhere in our galaxy is to determine accurate values for all of the variables contained in the updated equation.

This is where we need to go to better answer the question, “Are We Alone?”

Some Final SETI Search Thoughts

Compared to traveling to a distant star system the above search programs (exempting a Moonbase), are...

Low cost.
We already have much of the needed infrastructure in place.
All of these searches can be conducted remotely by AI.

It is unlikely that humans and other intelligent life will ever be able to visit each other, or even communicate with each other. Don't we at least want to know if anyone else is even out there?

Wouldn't we like to finally answer the most perplexing question Mankind has ever had..., “Are We Alone?” Even if the answer is “Yes, we are alone.” tells us just how precise our Earth is, and how precious the life is that it contains.

And what do we do if we are..., not alone?