&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Earth is unknowingly sending signals into space revealing our location to aliens")
Airport radars are tasked with detecting and tracking aircraft that are flying near an airport. However, a new study has found that they could also be revealing our location to aliens and advanced civilisations. The radars leak electromagnetic energy into space, which can be picked up by living beings as far as 200 light-years away. The study analysed what these signals appear like to extraterrestrials that could be present far away from us. This theory comes with two conditions. First, the alien civilisation should have state-of-the-art radio telescopes like Earth. Second, 200 light-years is how far humans can look to spot aliens with similar technology. The findings were revealed at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham.
Airport radars exposing our location to aliens 200 light-years away
The team simulated settings to understand what these radar signals would appear as from nearby stars such as Barnard’s Star and AU Microscopii after leaving Earth and spreading in space. The researchers found that the radio signal sent out by these radars is enough to be picked up by telescopes similar to those we have on Earth. Airport radars generate a combined radio signal of 2×1015 watts, which could be easily detected by telescopes that are the same as the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. They could be as far as 200 light-years from Earth, and would still be able to pick up these radar signals.
Military radars are stronger
When it comes to military radar systems, the signals being sent out are even more powerful. Military radar systems are more focused and have an accumulated peak emission reaching about 1×1014 watts in a given field-of-view of the observer. The signals emitted by them will be a hundred times stronger from some points in interstellar space. They will also appear to be "clearly artificial" to anyone who has access to powerful radio telescopes.
The team concluded that radar signals on any planet could act as a universal sign of intelligent life.
How humans and Earth appear to aliens
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The study shows not only how we can learn about other civilisations in the universe, but also what our signals look like in space. Michael Garrett of the University of Manchester, a co-author of the paper, said, "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 modelling 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.
