What new methods can be developed in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? This is what a recent white paper hopes to address as a pair of researchers from the Breakthrough Listen project and Michigan State University discussed how high-energy astronomy could be used for identifying radio signals from an extraterrestrial technological civilization, also called technosignatures.

This study has the potential to help SETI and other organizations develop novel techniques for finding intelligent life beyond Earth, Universe Today reports.

For the white paper, the researchers evaluated why high-energy astronomy, which involves celestial objects emitting cosmic rays, gamma rays, and X-rays, could be used by SETI for identifying technosignatures, noting how its use has grown in recent years.

Additionally, they discussed the potential sources of high-energy emissions, including neutrinos, X-rays, cosmic rays, gamma rays, pulsar wind nebulae, neutron stars, black holes, solar flares, and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Regarding how this contributes to specifically identifying technosignatures, the researchers note how high-energy signals could be indicative of a form of communication, industry, and habitat.

For communication, high-energy signals could be indicative of a technosignature since high-energy signals are often needed to send large amounts of data.

For industry, high-energy signals could be indicative of specific activities, including rockets, reactors, nuclear energy, accelerators, or even Dyson spheres and star engines, with the last two being far beyond Earth’s technological capabilities.

For habitat, high-energy signals could be indicative of life on the surface of neutron stars that survive from nuclear energy and the radiation that neutron stars emit. Finally, the researchers discussed next steps for integrating high-energy astronomy into SETI, including using machine learning, searching X-ray images, neutrino bursts, and gamma-ray observations.