A trip to the moon might constrain the Fermi Paradox

摘要

The failure to resolve the 70 year old Fermi paradox has been limited by the vastness of the Universe, the inability to search even a fraction of the Universe in a reasonable time period, and the lack of agreement on the criteria for life. We suggest that one approach is to use cyclical perturbations of thermodynamic equilibria on exoplanets within range of the most powerful mid-infrared (mid-IR) telescopes as a general screening tool for the possible existence of any form of life. We argue that the optimal platform for such a mid-IR search is on the Earth's moon.