Why is oxygen the key to finding alien technology?

In an effort to understand the potential for extraterrestrial life, researchers are expanding their search to include not only biological signs, but also signs of technological civilizations. While astrobiologists have long recognized the importance of oxygen to life as we know it, oxygen could also be the key to unlocking advanced technological civilizations on a planetary scale.

Alien hunters should look for technological civilizations on exoplanets with abundant oxygen in their atmospheres, according to new research aimed at enhancing the discovery of technological signatures from extraterrestrial civilizations.

Experts have discovered a link between atmospheric oxygen and the discovery of extraterrestrial technology on distant exoplanets. (Photo: ESO)

Amedeo Balbi, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy, and Adam Frank, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester in the US, argue that an exoplanet's atmosphere would need to contain at least 18% oxygen to support the development and functioning of a technological civilization. The reason for this, they say, is simple: oxygen is necessary for fire.

Frank and Balbi acknowledge that, in addition to respiration and metabolism in multicellular organisms, oxygen is also essential for starting fire, and fire is a hallmark of technological civilization. “You can find biological life in a world with no or very little oxygen, but you can’t start fire without oxygen,” Adam Frank said in a statement. “That means you’ll never develop a more technological civilization. Because more technology requires fuel and also melting and burning from fire.”

The research team also said that exoplanets with an oxygen content below 18% in the atmosphere will not be enough to sustain open-air fires for long, which will make metallurgy, machine building, and the operation of an extraterrestrial technological civilization difficult to realize. This means that only planets with significant oxygen concentrations are capable of developing advanced technological layers.

“Priority should be given to targeting planets with high oxygen content, as the presence of high oxygen content in exoplanet atmospheres can be a key clue in the search for signs of potential extraterrestrial technology,” Adam Frank added.

HUYNH DUNG (Source: Space/Rochester)

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