Previous SETI programs would not have detected an Earth-like civilization. The searches often looked for beacon-like signals deliberately beamed across space. Such beacons may not exist. Also, most radio SETI projects examined frequencies higher than 1 Gigahertz in order to avoid interference from both Earth-based and natural cosmic sources. Instead of looking for deliberate broadcasts, Loeb suggests looking for accidental leakage from an alien civilization. The new MWA-LFD, which is designed to study frequencies of 80-300 Megahertz, will pick up the same frequencies used by Earth technologies. It could detect Earth-like radio signals from a distance of up to 30 LY, which would encompass 1k stars. Future observatories like the Square Kilometer Array could detect Earth-like broadcasts from 10x farther away, which would encompass 100m stars.

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