What could ET know about us?

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Cornell astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger and a colleague have made a list of more than a thousand nearby star systems whose inhabitants could know a lot about Earth. Anyone in these systems who measures the light output from our Sun would notice that every 365 days it gets slightly dimmer. They would thereby learn that a small planet – our planet – orbits Sol, and, with further study, could discover that there’s life here. We’ll be talking to Lisa about these nearby star systems, and how they might be the key to finding evidence of intelligent life nearby. After all, if they know about us, maybe we could know about them.


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