The James Webb Space Telescope could hypothetically detect alien civilizations due to the atmospheric pollution they produce. A preprint of an article about this has been published in the arXiv repository.

The James Webb Telescope was launched in December 2021, becoming the most powerful and advanced space observatory. It will operate primarily in the infrared, allow it to see the light of the first stars in the universe, and be able to study many planets.

Jacob Hakk-Misra of the Blue Marble Space Science Institute in Seattle and colleagues explored James Webb's ability to study hypothetical alien civilizations. The resolution of the telescope will certainly not be enough to detect alien structures, but the researchers suggest that the observatory's spectrometers will make it possible to detect gases of artificial origin in the atmosphere.

First of all, the authors talk about chlorofluorocarbons, which played the role of refrigerants on Earth. Their use was banned in the 1980s due to environmental harm, but, as the scientists write, "if these gases are found anywhere in the galaxy, then they can almost certainly be considered a sign of active industrialization."

This search method has a number of limitations. So, if the parent star is too bright, its light will overwhelm the signal from the planet. In particular, the analogue of James Webb in other civilizations would not allow the detection of chlorofluorocarbons of the Earth. Therefore, searches should be concentrated around M-class stars, relatively dim red dwarfs.

More details about the design and tasks of James Webb can be found in the note.

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