Periodic Beacons in the Galactic Center: A Practical SETI Approach and the First Large-Scale Survey for Rotating Radio Technosignatures

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Researchers Sofia Sheikh and Akshay Suresh propose expanding SETI by looking for periodic, rotating radio beacons at the Milky Way’s center that flash like a lighthouse, which could be easier to detect amid noise and less confused with human interference, and they tested this idea with the Green Bank Telescope by surveying 600,000 stars for five hours, finding no extraordinary signals but showing the beacons concentrate energy and produce pulsating patterns that are simpler for algorithms to spot, suggesting the galactic center is a promising place to search for intelligent life despite radiation concerns.