Technosignatures are observational manifestations of technology, particularly those that could be detected through astronomical or other means. Possible technosignatures include waste heat, artificial illumination, artificial atmospheric constituents, artificial surface constituents, stellar pollution, non-terrestrial artifacts, and megastructures. This workshop welcomes discussion of this broad set of technosignatures, as well as any others that could conceivably be detected by a current or future NASA mission.

NASA’s recent interest in technosignatures resulted in the convening of a technosignatures workshop in 2018, which produced a report that defined the state of the field and emerging opportunities. The 2018 workshop represented a significant step in NASA’s astrobiology strategy by emphasizing the connection between the search for life on exoplanets and the possibility of detecting signs of extraterrestrial technology.

TechnoClimes continued the momentum of the previous NASA workshop on technosignatures by holding a focused 5-day discussion with the goal of delivering a research agenda on technosignatures to the broader community.

Searching for technosignatures in exoplanetary systems with current and future missions

Haqq-Misra, J., Schwieterman, E.W., Socas-Navarro, H., Kopparapu, R., Angerhausen, D., Beatty, T.G., Berdyugina, S., Felton, R., Sharma, S., Gabriel, G., Apai, D., and the TechnoClimes 2020 workshop participants (2022) Acta Astronautica 198: 194-207.

Concepts for future missions to search for technosignatures

Socas-Navarro, H., Haqq-Misra, J., Wright, J.T., Kopparapu, R., Benford, J., Davis, R., and the TechnoClimes 2020 workshop participants (2021) Acta Astronautica 182: 446-453.

Evaluation of investigational paradigms for the discovery of non-canonical astrophysical phenomena

Singam, C.A., Haqq-Misra, J., Balbi, A., Sessa, A.M., Villarroel, B., De la Torre, G.G., Grinspoon, D., Furukawa, H. and Timmaraju, V. (2020) arXiv:2103.01536.

Technosignatures as a Priority in Planetary Science

Sheikh, S., Berea, A., Davis, R., De la Torre, G.G., DeMarines, J., Fisher, T., Foote, S., Gelino, D., Grinspoon, D., Profitiliotis, G. and Sessa, A.M. (2021) Whitepaper #427 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032.