Where to Search For Life: Evidence from narrative sources with established predictive efficacy

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the frequency of constellation mentions in pulp-era science fiction magazines to identify locations deemed most likely for extraterrestrial life, proposing these as targets for biosphere searches.

Contribution

It introduces a novel statistical method using science fiction narratives to predict promising locations for extraterrestrial life searches.

Findings

Certain constellations are more frequently mentioned, indicating collective scientific intuition.

Science fiction's predictive power can inform real astronomical search strategies.

Prioritizing these constellations could enhance the efficiency of biosphere detection efforts.

Abstract

The search for habitable planets, and even for ``Earth 2.0'', is a major driver in contemporary astronomy. However selecting target fields to prioritise for such searches presents a challenge. Here we establish a statistical analysis of the appearance of constellation names in science fiction magazines of the pulp era, evaluating the most commonly mentioned constellations and thus those which the science fiction community collectively identify as the most likely locations to find life. Given that the predictive power of science fiction is well established, we suggest that these locations might be prioritised by searches for extrasolar biospheres.