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LaserSETI has extended its search for brief optical signals into Asia. In an October 22, 2026 announcement, the SETI Institute and Royal Commission for AlUla said two stations at AlUla Manara in northwest Saudi Arabia are commissioned and collecting data.
The installation happened on August 19, rather than on the announcement date. AlUla is the project’s fifth observing site worldwide, joining California, Hawai‘i, Arizona and Puerto Rico.
Why another location matters
A short flash can occur while a conventional telescope is looking elsewhere. LaserSETI uses wide-field cameras and diffraction gratings to watch broad areas of sky. Adding geographically separated stations expands coverage and lets researchers compare unusual events from different vantage points. AlUla’s protected dark skies provide another advantage for faint optical observations.
How the optical search works
The SETI Institute’s technical overview explains the distinction the instruments exploit: ordinary starlight spreads across many wavelengths, whereas a laser can concentrate its light in a narrow wavelength range. A grating separates incoming light by color, helping the cameras recognize that difference.
Each detection device pairs two cameras rotated relative to one another. That arrangement helps reject false alarms, including detector events caused by cosmic rays. Broad coverage and checks on spurious signals are central to the experiment; a striking flash alone would not establish its origin.
An observing milestone, with analysis ahead
The new announcement reports operational instruments, not a detected extraterrestrial signal. The next phase centers on analyzing the observations. SETI Institute and RCU will operate and maintain the AlUla stations together over three years.
Image note: the featured image is an AI-generated conceptual illustration of optical sky monitoring, not a photograph of AlUla Manara or its instruments.
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