Aliens could use Heathrow Airport as homing beacon to find us & experts reveal how long it might take them to get here
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HUMANS have been searching for aliens for decades - but all this time, intelligent extraterrestrial life could have found us, according to a new study.
Heathrow Airport has been acting as a sort of homing beacon to find us, experts at have revealed at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2025) in Durham.
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This artist's impression shows the rocky planet Proxima Centauri b - Earth's closest potentially habitable planet
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This artist's impression shows the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri
But it's not just Heathrow - the largest and busiest airport in the UK, but Gatwick and New York's JFK International Airport, too.
All civilian airports and military bases that use radar systems have been inadvertently revealing our existence to potential advanced alien civilizations, new research suggests.
If aliens are equipped with state-of-the-art radio telescopes like our own - they would be able to spot hidden electromagnetic leakage from these Earth sites up to 200 light-years away.
The study also suggests that 200 light-years is just how far humans would be able to look to spot aliens who have evolved to use a similar level of technology.
As airport radar systems sweep the skies for airplanes, they send out a combined radio signal of 2x1015 watts, the researchers said.
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But it's not just Heathrow - the largest and busiest airport in the UK, but Gatwick and New York's JFK International Airport, too
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Airport radar systems sweep the skies for airplanes
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That's enough power to be picked up as far as 200 light-years away by telescopes as strong as the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the world's biggest fully steerable radio telescope.
For context, the nearest potentially habitable world beyond our solar system is Proxima Centauri b, which is 4 light-years away.
And while it would take thousands of years to get there with today's technology, there are a number of potentially habitable worlds in that distance.
Lead researcher Ramiro Caisse Saide, of the University of Manchester, said these signals would look "clearly artificial to anyone watching from interstellar distances with powerful radio telescopes."
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The Ph.D student added: "In fact, these military signals can appear up to a hundred times stronger from certain points in space, depending on where an observer is located.
"Our findings suggest that radar signals - produced unintentionally by any planet with advanced technology and complex aviation system - could act as a universal sign of intelligent life."
By simulating how these radar signals emit from Earth over time and space, the researchers looked at how visible they would be from nearby stars.
The research may help guide other scientists on identifying promising technosignatures emitted by alien worlds, Saide explained.
Co-researcher, Professor Michael Garrett, of the University of Manchester, added: "By learning how our signals travel through space, we gain valuable insights into how to protect the radio spectrum for communications and design future radar systems.
"The methods developed for modeling and detecting these weak signals can also be used in astronomy, planetary defence, and even in monitoring the impact of human technology on our space environment."
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If aliens are equipped with state-of-the-art radio telescopes like our own - they would be able to spot hidden electromagnetic leakage from these Earth sites up to 200 light-years away
Credit: Getty
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The research may help guide other scientists on identifying promising technosignatures emitted by alien worlds, Saide explained
Credit: Getty
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