Saudi Arabia LaserSETI Detectors Join the Hunt for Alien Signals

Saudi Arabia has joined the search for alien civilisations. Two Saudi Arabia LaserSETI detectors now scan the sky from AlUla Manara, a site being built as the kingdom’s first major astronomical observatory. They were installed on August 19, 2026, and are fully operational. AlUla is the fifth LaserSETI site and the first in Asia. The others are in California, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Arizona.

LaserSETI is a network of optical detectors that has been in development since 2024, with the SETI Institute behind it. Each unit uses a camera with an ordinary lens to image about 75 degrees of sky. A grating separates starlight, which spreads across the full spectrum, from laser signals, which show up at a single wavelength.

Only the grating and the stainless-steel enclosure are custom-made, and some parts are 3D-printed to keep costs down. A computer in each unit analyses data in real time, which avoids expensive storage and allows live alerts. Unlike many SETI efforts, it watches the whole sky continuously, so it can catch rare, brief events.

More sites mean more sky coverage, and coverage raises the odds of catching a laser from another civilization. Most detections will be natural flashes, so the real value is cross-checking. Eliot Gillum of the SETI Institute says unusual events can be compared across regions as the network grows. Franck Marchis calls AlUla a new geographic vantage point.

For the kingdom, the Saudi Arabia LaserSETI detectors fit a wider push into science that includes KAUST, founded in 2009. The site suits it. AlUla is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Dark Sky Park, and AlUla Manara sits on a remote plateau about 74 km north of AlUla.

AlUla Manara is planned to host a 4-meter telescope and two 2-meter telescopes, if plans succeed. Naif Al Malik, the site’s executive program head, calls the commissioning a milestone for the partnership. Watch whether the Saudi Arabia LaserSETI detectors produce early alerts, and whether the network adds sites to fill gaps. Any confirmed laser signals would be huge, but the likelier result for now is a growing record of ordinary cosmic flashes.