Optical Communications

Civilizations which expand beyond a single planetary system will desire a way to communicate between their settlements, probes and spacecraft. This is a different scenario than "beacons" intended for unknown recipients, which may be less desirable to civilizations unwilling to bear the significant cost of interstellar altruism.

Optical messaging can take several forms, including lasers and modulated starlight, and offers the advantage of greater data density than lower frequency areas of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as radio.

Detectability

  • Because optical messaging is designed for large amounts of data over lengthy distances, this represents one of the more detectable technosignatures being sought.
  • One challenge with any sort of messaging, is the readability, or even recognizability, of communications not intended for an eavesdropping third party. Communications may be encrypted, and further, may be encrypted in such a way as to not even be recognizable as communications.

Research

17-Jan-2023
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
2-Jan-2023
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
21-Nov-2022
27-Oct-2022
The Astronomical Journal
14-Oct-2022
Astrophysical Journal
4-Oct-2022
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IX
21-Sep-2022
26-Aug-2022
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
22-Aug-2022
Acta Astronautica
8-Jun-2022
Astrobiology
(17-Jan-2023)
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
(2-Jan-2023)
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
(21-Nov-2022)
(27-Oct-2022)
The Astronomical Journal
(14-Oct-2022)
Astrophysical Journal
(4-Oct-2022)
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IX
(21-Sep-2022)
(26-Aug-2022)
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
(22-Aug-2022)
Acta Astronautica
(8-Jun-2022)
Astrobiology