Cosmic Fog: Space Weather Distorts Interstellar Signals and Reframes SETI Detectability

To the point

Space weather can blur and spread radio signals as they travel through a star’s wind, making interstellar messages look like noise instead of clean signals, with evidence from Mariner IV, Pioneer 6, Helios 1 and 2, and Viking probes showing stronger blurring near the Sun and at certain distances; red dwarfs with powerful flares would worsen this, and Grace K. Brown notes algorithms are being built to recognize blurred technosignatures by spotting weather-driven patterns instead of perfect needles, offering a new angle on the Fermi paradox and suggesting future space-weather–aware searches could reveal signals hidden in the cosmic fog.