Human technology like cell phones and broadcast towers constantly radiate radio waves into space, and astronomers estimate this tell-tale signature of humanity has swept across 75 nearby star systems, signaling to any watchful alien civilization that Earth hosts a technologically advanced species. And, while scientists have listened to the incessant radio chatter from our planet for a long time, in late February, they heard it from the moon for the first time.
A small radio telescope onboard the Odysseus spacecraft, the first commercial vehicle that successfully landed on the moon on Feb. 22, recorded radio waves beamed from Earth for 1.5 hours. The experiment, named ROLSES, made its observations from Odysseus' landing spot near the Malapert A crater, which sits roughly 185 miles (297 kilometers) away from the moon's south pole.
