The Search for Technosignatures: a Review of Possibilities
Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester · Chester
astro-ph.EP, astro-ph.IM, astro-ph.SR
Submitted: 2026-05-20
Updated: 2026-10-02
Comments: 118 pages, paper started as a collective workshop at the Penn State SETI Symposium (PSETI 2023)
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: This paper aims to review the diverse range of technosignatures that have been proposed in the literature.
Terminology
Abstract
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.
Sources
- Transit Lightcurve Signatures of Artificial Objects
- The Natural History of 'Oumuamua
- The Physics of Life: Exploring Information as a Distinctive Feature of Living Systems
- Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation
- Looking for Lurkers
- A Firefly-inspired Model for Deciphering the Alien
- On testing the simulation theory
- Starry Messages: Searching for Signatures of Interstellar Archaeology
- Macroengineering in the Galactic Context: A New Agenda for Astrobiology
- Possible Implications of the Quantum Theory of Gravity
- Are Black Hole Starships Possible
- Technosignature Searches of Interstellar Objects
- Finding the ET Signal from the Cosmic Noise
- Black holes as tools for quantum computing by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations
- Gravitational Machines
- The Puzzle of Meteoritic Minerals Heideite and Brezinaite; Are they Iron-based Superconductors? Are they Technosignatures?
- Detection Rate of <50-meter Interstellar Objects with LSST
- A 2821 Star Optical SETI Survey using ESO HARPS archival data
- Information Gain as a Tool for Assessing Biosignature Missions
- A Complex Systems Approach to Exoplanet Atmospheric Chemistry: New Prospects for Ruling Out the Possibility of Alien Life-As-We-Know-It
Related papers
- PDS 70 c and SR 12 c: Observational Constraints on Giant-Planet and Satellite Formation
- Two-stage disruption of resonant chains
- Detectability of resolved hydrogen lines from the accretion shock at gas giants and their CPDs
- Binary-lens Microlensing Degeneracy: Impact on Planetary Sensitivity and Mass-ratio Function
- Atmospheric escape fractionates secondary but not primary atmospheres
- The Occurrence Rate of Nearby Planetary Companions to Hot Jupiters