Finding Life In Space By Looking For Extraterrestrial Pollution

coondoggie writes: If what we know as advanced life exists anywhere other than Earth, then perhaps they are dirtying their atmosphere as much as we are. We could use such pollution components to perhaps more easily spot such planets. That's the basis of new research published this week by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. They say that if we could spot the fingerprints of certain pollutants under ideal conditions (PDF), it would offer a new approach in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence."

Comments

Re:Advanced?

[WillKemp]

Pollution occurs wherever there is life.

True. Earth was populated for millions of years by organisms that polluted the atmosphere with oxygen.