Extra terrestrial communication.

I'd point the dish at the blogs and forums first.

We have been sending radio signals into space since radio was invented. Not possible to prevent it, without putting a faraday cage around the entire Earth. And some have sent out specific signals, as well. (Lookup Amateur Radio....)

Shalom,
Iyyov

We are already sending signals they read. We are all amused that because it is not announced you decide we have not received return messages. Need to know, decided by others is the operative phrase. Most humans have zero need to know.

[quote=jac_the_gripper
The thought of other life out there is likely pretty mind-blowing for most people. If other life is discovered, or even more so if contact is made, I'd be pretty miffed if I were deprived of that profundity during my lifetime.An Exoplanet is a planet orbiting a star other than our own. As of 1 March 2023, there are 5,332 confirmed exoplanets. They orbit 3,931 other stars.
There were some studies done in the 1970s regarding chemistry based life (like ours). It was determined there were really only 2 elements that could combine with Oxygen and and perform the full range of biological functions needed to form cells and higher organisms. One is Carbon, which is the one known Earth life uses. Carbon based life requires the presence of both Hydrogen and Oxygen. Fortunately on our planet those are usually found together in the form we call water. For us on our planet Carbon Hydrogen and Oxygen with a little Nitrogen thrown in (the combination is usually called CHNO and with various numbers between the letters it forms the basis of many, many things on Earth). Luckily our atmosphere is just full of Nitrogen as a gas we breath. The other element that can support life is Silicon There is however a problem with Silicon based life existing on our planet. The postulated respiration by-product of a Silicon based life form that uses Oxygen for it's electron exchanges is SiliconDiOxide. On Earth Silicon DiOxide is a quartz. Breathing it out here would be painful. At a much higher temperature and pressure than a human could survive that quartz becomes more breathable.
If silicon based life does exist somewhere, we probably won't have much contact with such creatures nor would they be terribly excited about coming here. We would turn to ash on their world and they would burst from internal pressure and suffocate here while also freezing. So we won't waste time on them and theirgiant molten worlds.
To find life, we should probably find water first. As of 1 March 2023 there are 23 moons and planets with water (including Earth) in our solar system. Most of it is ice. Some far away moons are literally coated with ice that is miles thick. Because of internal planet heat it is possible down at the bottom there is liquid water and life of some kind, but not accessible in any way with today's technology and probably not for hundreds of years to come.
Look instead for a world close enough to it's sun (aka the habitable zone) to have liquid water in a stable orbit, hopefully about the same size as Earth if you want to find life. Star Trek called worlds fitting that description with Oxygen atmospheres Class M planets. Earth is a class M planet.
Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists have identified an Earth-size world, called TOI 700 e, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star – the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet’s surface. The world is 95% Earth’s size and likely rocky. There are three other planets in that star system. It is suspected one of the others may also have water. So that is two worlds where life is possible, both orbiting a Red dwarf star which is only 218 light years from Earth. The years there are short with a complete rotation of that sun only taking less than a month our time.
Meanwhile Hubble has determined a large world in the Leo Constellation orbiting the sun known as K2-18 which reveals the molecular signal of the presence of water. This star is only 110 Light years away from us. That planet is in the Habitable zone making much of that water liquid. Since that world has 8 times the mass of Earth the gravity is much more than Earth's. Additionally that star, another red dwarf, is pretty active and there may be a lot of radiation hitting that planet. Not a good vacation spot.
My point is we are just beginning to look and already we have found 3 worlds where life can, in theory exist

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