Astronomers are using a new supernova to search for alien signals

If any alien civilisations have spotted the new supernova SN 2023ixf in the Pinwheel galaxy, they may use it to try to make contact

The supernova SN 2023ixf in the Pinwheel galaxy might be an opportunity for contacting other civilisations
Paul Macklin

Astronomers are looking towards a recent supernova for alien radio signals, in the hope that an advanced civilisation might be trying to communicate with us.

Last month, a supernova dubbed SN 2023ixf was found in the nearby Pinwheel galaxy 21 million light years away, the closest stellar explosion detected from Earth in a decade. Earlier this year, an idea was put forward suggesting that supernovae like this might be good opportunities to search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Supernovae are so bright they can outshine their galaxies. The idea is that an alien civilisation that sees them might therefore use them as beacons to attract attention to its own signals. The thinking is it could target stars that would receive its alien signals shortly after the supernova becomes visible to potential recipients, in other words, at a time when any advanced life might well be looking in the right direction.

James Davenport at the University of Washington and his colleagues are now putting this to the test. Using two radio telescopes on Earth, they are observing about 100 stars within about 300 light years of Earth that should have already seen the light from the supernova and might now be trying to communicate with us – if there are any inhabited planets around them.

“Within a week of the event, we started taking data,” says Davenport. “There are no signals yet.”

The team plans to continue observing the stars for weeks or months, in case someone uses this opportunity to try to make contact. “This is exactly the kind of thing we are tooled up to do right now,” says Davenport.

While the chances of detecting anything are slim, Davenport argues it is worth a look. “The worst thing to happen would be for a signal to come in and us not to notice because we didn’t bother to look,” he says.

The search also raises the question of whether we should consider sending out our own directed signals the next time we see a nearby supernova. “There’s a lot of debate about it,” says Davenport.

Reference:

arXivDOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2306.03118