Scientists say we should look for city lights on other planets in the hunt for alien life

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Scientists searching for extra-terrestrial life should be looking for ‘city lights’ from alien civilisations, researchers have suggested. The notion of searching for “technosignatures” has been considered by astronomers for more than half a century – generally focused on radio transmissions such as the ‘Wow!’ signal, the basis of prioritising technosignatures “remains in a state of infancy compared to biosignature science”, researchers say. One of the strongest technosignatures present on Earth’s nightside is the emission from nightside city lights, they write, but on Earth this is relatively concentrated to large cities such as New York and Tokyo. Although many Earth-like cities would not be detectable even with the telescopes being designed to launch in the next decade, The Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor currently being developed for 2039 would be capable of detecting some city lights.