Jason Wright discusses SETI at Penn State
"When I say ‘looking for technological life, extraterrestrial life, elsewhere in the galaxy,’ what image comes to mind?” asked Jason Wright, director of the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center and professor of astronomy and astrophysics, of an audience of residents of the Village at Penn State.
“E.T.,” one resident responded.
“Little green men,” said another with a chuckle.
"A lot of times when we ask people to imagine what we might find, like what aliens might look like, we end up with something maybe like this,” Wright said, gesturing to a projection showing a photo from the Steven Spielberg film “E.T.”
“When I say ‘extraterrestrials,’” he continued, “I mean we're really looking to see if there's technological life elsewhere in the galaxy.”
In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, scientists have used tools like the Allen Telescope Array at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory — a radio telescope array designed specifically for SETI research, used to detect celestial radio waves, which are analyzed to look for patterns or anomalies that might be artificial in origin.
Now, using powerful optical instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope, Wright and his team can look for technosignatures — technological traces of intelligent life — other than radio signals. Those technosignatures may be atmospheric, signals of artificial compounds in a planet’s atmosphere; they might be in the form of light, indicating the potential presence of megastructures around stars through abnormal light curves; or they could be in the form of waste heat, signs of infrared radiation potentially generated by advanced civilizations, to name just a few.
But Wright said funding for his research is in danger due to recent cuts to federally funded programs like NASA, which in December 2024 awarded a three-year, $480,000 grant to the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center. He added, however, that he’s grateful for the University’s continued support.
“Penn State is one of the only places, maybe the only university, that has something like that (programs searching for extraterrestrial life) supported by the university,” he said, “so it's a great place to be to working on this stuff.”
Part of an ongoing Penn State outreach program connecting faculty with the local community, Wright spoke to residents at the Village on June 27, in advance of the third international Penn State SETI Symposium in August.
Penn State is a world leader in the search for exoplanets and an international hub for SETI research, and past symposia have brought together scientists from across the globe as well as featured panelists and other speakers from popular science media and even from NASA.