These days, anything with the word “aliens” in its title tends to be more sensational than scientific. Humans have been fascinated with the idea of alien life for centuries, and as technology has advanced, we have focused our efforts on searching for signs of extraterrestrial life in the far reaches of space. However, a new scientific study suggests that aliens could find us by using mobile tower signals, and this has been published in the “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.”
Mobile phones have become an integral part of our daily lives, and vast arrays of radio transmission towers are required to support mobile phone networks. Part of the radio signals transmitted by these towers leaks out into space. Although military radar waves still account for the majority of radio leakage from Earth, cell power networks have risen to the second spot.
Each cell tower emits a radio signal with a power of 100-200 watts, and given the large number of mobile towers on the planet, radio signals amounting to a few gigawatts are beamed into space. If we assume that an alien civilization has reasonably sophisticated radio astronomy capabilities, the radio leakage from Earth could be detectable within a dozen light-years or so.
While this is both exciting and scary, it’s unlikely that we’ll receive a random mobile call from an alien one day. The sheer volume of radio waves on Earth would make it difficult for any individual message intended for aliens to reach a specific person.
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