New Study Shows James Webb Space Telescope Could Detect Signs of Alien Civilization on Earth
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has the potential to detect signs of our civilization on Earth if it were observing us from another star system in the Milky Way, according to a new study. This finding has raised hopes that the state-of-the-art spacecraft could also detect alien civilizations as it explores distant worlds in our galaxy.
While the primary objective of JWST, launched in late 2021, is to shed light on how the early universe formed by observing the deepest reaches of the cosmos, one of its secondary goals is to analyze the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets. In doing so, it hopes to identify gases produced by biological life, known as biosignatures, and chemicals produced by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, known as technosignatures.
However, it remains uncertain how well JWST will be able to identify these signs of intelligent life. To address this, researchers conducted a study to test whether the telescope could successfully detect intelligent life from Earth, which is the only known inhabited and habitable planet in the universe.
In the study, the researchers manipulated data from Earth’s atmosphere to mimic how it would appear to an observer located dozens of light-years away. Using a computer model replicating JWST’s sensor capabilities, they then assessed whether the spacecraft could identify key biosignatures, such as methane and oxygen, produced by biological life, as well as technosignatures such as nitrogen dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) generated by human activity.
Although the results have not yet undergone peer review, they suggest that JWST could likely detect all the major indicators of both non-intelligent and intelligent life in Earth’s atmosphere. The researchers compared the quality of the manipulated dataset to JWST observations of planets in the TRAPPIST-1 star system, situated around 40 light-years from Earth. Consequently, the study suggests that JWST should be capable of detecting signs of life or alien civilizations within a 40-light-year radius of Earth, with a potential extendable range of up to 50 light-years.
Currently, only around 20 exoplanets have been officially discovered within a 50-light-year radius of Earth. However, based on experts’ estimates of the number of suspected stars in this region of space, there may be up to 4,000 exoplanets within JWST’s reach, according to Project EDEN, an international collaboration dedicated to the search for potentially habitable planets near Earth.
Nevertheless, the ability to detect signs of life on other planets may prove challenging without contextual knowledge about the specific habitable environment, caution the researchers. In this study, they already knew which markers to search for in Earth’s atmosphere, but on exoplanets with different conditions and potential life forms or technologies, these life-signatures may not be as readily discernible.
Despite this limitation, JWST has already made several intriguing discoveries about exoplanets near Earth. It detected water on the Neptune-size exoplanet GJ 1214b and revealed that TRAPPIST-1b likely lacks an atmosphere due to its extreme heat. Furthermore, the spacecraft observed a massive dust storm in the atmosphere of VHS 1256 b, a “super-Jupiter” exoplanet.
On a closer scale, JWST also identified giant geysers emanating from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which may contain the necessary chemical components for life. Additionally, it observed carbon compounds with potential life-sustaining properties in an infant star system located over 1,000 light-years from Earth.
As JWST continues to explore the universe and further scrutinize exoplanets, the possibility of discovering signs of extraterrestrial life becomes increasingly intriguing. The telescope’s advanced capabilities have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos and potentially make contact with intelligent civilizations beyond Earth.