Scientists are no longer listening for the chatter of alien civilisations light years away - they are now looking for the heat they generate.
A new project is hunting for extraterrestrials by poring over infrared maps of the sky.
The idea behind this is that alien technology gives off heat, and it might be spotted by searching for tell-tale infrared radiation.
The project is called G-HAT, which stands for Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies, and it works by combing through a catalogue of images that were generated by the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer of 2012.
Jason Wright of Pennsylvania State University, team leader of the project, explained that a galaxy should emit about 10% of its light in a mid-infrared range. If more is emitted it could suggest "warming by alien technology".
This approach is far different to previous attempts to locate alien life through transmitting messages or searching for alien chatter.
The problem with this way of looking for extraterrestrials is that it requires them to be communicating through channels we can hear and G-HAT has already pinpointed a few dozen galaxies that appear to be giving off more heat than they should be.
The future challenge will be trying to establish that the heat is being generated by technology and not by some celestial event.
But finding aliens may not be a good thing. Professor Stephen Hawking has suggested that instead of trying to communicate with other life forms we should rather try and avoid them.
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