The next major search for extraterrestrial intelligence might involve putting Moon dust under a microscope rather than pointing a radio telescope toward the stars. A new study led by SETI Institute Affiliate Scientist Lewis Pinault proposes searching lunar regolith for microscopic particles that could represent the surviving debris of extraterrestrial technology. Such material might have drifted between stars for millions or billions of years before eventually reaching the Moon. submitted by...

Official Study: Micron-Scale Technosignatures: How a Cubic Metre of Lunar Regolith May Begin to Constrain the Number of Past Technological Civilisations in the Galaxy “The Moon has been quietly accumulating material from space for billions of years, much of it likely billions of years older than the Moon itself,” Dr. Pinault said. “We’re asking whether that ancient collection might contain microscopic traces of technologies that existed long before humans ever looked up at the sky.” “Unlike E...