A new study points to the possibility of finding extraterrestrial civilizations that may have also developed artificial lighting sources which our next generation telescopes can detect.
Researchers Abraham Loeb from Harvard and Edwin L. Turner of Princeton, said it is possible to peer into space and spot artificially illuminated objects, adding that current optical telescopes and surveys have the ability to see this amount of light at the edge of our Solar System and observations with large telescopes can measure a Kuiper Belt Objects spectra to determine if they are illuminated by artificial lighting.
Distinguishing an artificial illumination from solar illumination on KBO with typical albedo may be tricky, but the researchers said the existing telescopes and surveys can spot the difference as it will carry the dead give-away which is the spectral signature.
According to Loeb and Turner, our civilization uses two basic classes of illumination, thermal (incandescent light bulbs) and quantum (light emitting diodes and fluorescent lamps). "Such artificial light sources have different spectral properties than sunlight.
The spectra of artificial lights on distant objects would likely distinguish them from natural illumination sources, since such emission would be exceptionally rare in the natural thermodynamic conditions present on the surface of relatively cold objects.
Therefore, artificial illumination may serve as a lamppost which signals the existence of extraterrestrial technologies and thus civilizations," the researchers said.
Not all random light source detected where there should be darkness might be considered a sign of life, the study said, as there are many factors which could contribute to illumination, such as viewing angle, backscattering, surface shadowing, outgassing, rotation, surface albedo variations and more.
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