Scientists want to build a laser beacon that could attract extraterrestrial life and guide them to Earth. A research paper from an MIT graduate student suggested that humanity could potentially attract the extraterrestrial life with an infrared laser that could be both hot and bright enough. The study’s lead author, James Clark says it could, “certainly attract attention.”  

Research suggests that a laser with 1 to 2 megawatts in strength, coming from a telescope of at least 100 feet, in length, could get the attention of civilizations as far as 20,000 light years away from Earth. The combination could create a beacon of IR radiation with enough strength to stand out from the sun’s energy. MIT researchers claim that if an alien was searching from the nearest star to Earth with potentially inhabitable planets, the laser could be used to send a message in pulses similar to Morse code.  

There are obvious issues with this project, one being that the beam will be invisible, and could damage people’s vision if they were to look directly at it. Any alien astronomer looking at our section of the galaxy would have to look directly at the beam in order to detect it, this makes the discovery of the beam highly unlikely. “If you wanted to build this thing on the far side of the moon where no one’s living or orbiting much, then that could be a safer place for it,” Says Calrk. “In general, this was a feasibility study. Whether or not this is a good idea, that’s a discussion for future work.” 

One of the researchers of the project says that a majority of the technology that’s needed in order to accomplish such a goal is currently available, and whatever is needed can be developed in the future.