SETI: How Astronomers Search for Technological Life in the Universe @itelescopewebinars

Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

Guest Speaker: Macy Huston, Ph.D. candidate, University of Pennsylvania
Summary: Learn how astronomers search for advanced extraterrestrial life in the Universe. SETI is a field of astronomy dedicated to search technologically advanced life in the universe. Looking for technologically capable life in the vastness of space is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Macy describes how mankind has been searching for extraterrestrial life for several decades using different means, for example: searching for artificial radio signals, searching for artificial lasers from space, searching for technological evidence of life in exoplanets through transmission spectroscopy, searching for megastructures in the universe, and other means.

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:25 Technosigntures
5:55 What is SETI
7:21 Why haven't we found anything yet?
11:25 SETI search for signatures
22:28 Waste, heat, and megastructures
28:08 SETI solar system
29:46 Generalized SETI
33:18 The Drake equation
38:15 Philosophy of SETI

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