SETI Guidelines Updated After 15 Years: Expanded Detection Methods, Verification, and International Disclosure Protocols

To the point

The IAA SETI Committee has updated its rules for evaluating and publicly announcing credible signs of extraterrestrial intelligence—marking the first major revision in over 15 years—expanding the search to infrared, optical, and gravitational signals, requiring independent verification with different instruments, protecting researchers from harassment, ensuring announcements are public only after authentication, sharing verification data with IAU, COSPAR, ITU, and UNOOSA and storing it in two tamper‑proof locations with open‑access encouraged, creating a Post‑Detection Subcommittee to handle media communication, and directing any response to a detected signal to go through broad international consultations led by the UN, with the update to be presented at the International Astronautical Congress in Turkey by Michael Garrett, Bill Diamond, and Douglas Vakoch, clearly distinguishing messaging from responding to a confirmed signal.