Chinese scientists hunt for alien radio signals in a 'potentially habitable' star system

TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf star located about 40 light years away that hosts seven Earth-sized rocky planets, with at least three orbiting in the habitable zone where liquid water could exist.

- WORDS MARK THOMPSON

This makes it one of the most Solar System-like exoplanet systems discovered, with TRAPPIST-1 e considered among the best potentially habitable exoplanets. The system's proximity and multiple potentially habitable worlds make it an ideal target for searching for technological civilisations. The research team conducted the search using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) to exploit its unprecedented sensitivity. The observations consisted of five independent L-band pointings, each with a 20-minute integration, for a total time of 1.67 hours. The frequency coverage spanned 1.05 to 1.45 gigahertz with a spectral resolution of 7.5 hertz, allowing them to detect extremely weak radio signals that might indicate alien technology.