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Space

Search for alien transmissions in promising star system draws a blank

Astronomers listened for radio signals emanating from planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, but found no evidence of any interplanetary communications

By Jonathan O’Callaghan

26 September 2024

Artist’s impression of the seven planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system

NASA

A search for aliens communicating between planets in one of the most promising systems to look for life has come up empty.

Discovered in 2017, TRAPPIST-1 is a system of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a red dwarf star much dimmer than our sun, about 40 light years away. The planets all orbit closer than Mercury does to our sun and pass in front of their star from our point of view. Three of the planets orbit in the star’s habitable zone, where liquid water can exist, and they…

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