The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program recently announced two new methods to search for signals that would indicate the presence of life on other planets.
The Panchromatic SETI project involves the use of numerous telescopes that will scan the light from 30 stars located relatively close to the Sun in different light ranges. The goal of this project is to search for powerful signals that can be sent into space by intelligent inhabitants of other planets.
The panchromatic project will study a "control sample" of 30 stars that are within 5 parsecs (16 light years) of the Sun. This list includes 13 single stars, seven binary star systems and one triple system. Most of these stars are smaller than the Sun, but the project is also exploring two white dwarfs and one "near-adult" F type star. Not a single exoplanet has yet been discovered in the orbits of all these stars.
The project participants selected stars for research based only on how far they are from the Sun. Observations with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and Green Bank Telescope (GBT) will begin in summer – fall 2014. The Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) interferometer at the Mount Wilson Observatory and the Nickel Telescope at the Lick observatory are currently under development and adjustment Observatory.
The project specialists have also applied for the use of the William E. Gordon telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and they hope to use the capabilities of the Keck Telescope in Manua Kea in Hawaii.
In addition, SETI is launching an interplanetary wiretapping program that will aim to capture messages that are transmitted between different planets of the same star system. The second project will use data from observations of multiplanetary systems obtained by the Kepler mission, in an attempt to "eavesdrop" on signals that are sent from one planet to another.