Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe a powerful laser beacon on Earth could beat conventional radio broadcasts.
In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, the study’s authors claimed space lasers could be a quicker way of communicating with intelligent alien life.
These laser-based signals could be beamed up to 20,000 light years from Earth in hopes of attracting attention.
The distance is equal to 117,572,507,463,600,000 miles from Earth (189,214,609,451,600,000 km).
Study author James Clark said the right combination of lasers and space telescopes could produce beams of infrared radiation stronger than those of the Sun.
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Just by focusing a one to two-megawatt laser through a 98ft to 147ft (30m to 45m) telescope, astronomers could contact alien civilisations here in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Mr Clark said: “If we were to successfully close a handshake and start to communicate, we could flash a message, at a data rate of about a few hundred bits per second, which would get there in just a few years.”
If properly applied, scientists could send messages to the nearest star systems such as Proxima Centauri or TRAPPIST-1.
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TRAPPIST-1 is of particular interest to astronomers because the system contains seven Earth-sized exoplanets and is only 40 light years away.
According to NASA, some of the planets in the TRAPPIST system could contain up to 250-times more water than Earth does – the building block of life.
If an intelligent alien civilisation exists on any one of these planets, sending out a laser signal across space could be the key to initiating contact.
The same laser could be then used to beam out short messages in the form of morse code pulses.
Mr Clark said: “This would be a challenging project but not an impossible one.
“The kinds of lasers and telescopes that are being built today can produce a detectable signal, so that an astronomer could take one look at our star and immediately see something unusual about its spectrum.
“I don’t know if intelligent creatures around the sun would be their first guess, but it would certainly attract further attention.”
In their paper, Mr Clark and co-author Kerri Cahoy noted the next step towards discovering intelligent alien life should involve more infrared-based approaches.
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Earlier last month UFO expert Nick Pope argued the world’s leading space agencies could be five to 10 years from discovering alien life.
Mr Pope said the rapid development of space exploration technology will uncover evidence of intelligent or microbial life in space.
And in September this year, NASA underlined its commitment towards finding extraterrestrial life outside of our home planet.
The US space agency said its science missions are “working together with a goal to find unmistakable signs of life beyond Earth”.