Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/06/seeking-out-extraterrestrials.html
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Of course, Farnsworth beat them to it in the 31st Century:
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It’s an old idea, really. The idea is that life will create unstable gases (in our case, oxygen instead of the much more stable carbon dioxide). So analyzing the atmospheric composition should detect if life exists on a planetary scale.
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Our extraterrestrial friends prefer the descriptor “scent.”
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The astrochemistry lab at the UA in Tucson has the ability to make whatever molecule is of interest to the astronomer, by means of a vacuum chamber with a laser and/or spark gap energy source to convert some readily available chemical to the molecule of interest. The spectra of the interesting molecule is captured and used as a reference for the astronomical observations, in this case with millimeter-wave radio telescopes.
(I’m not an astronomer or chemist, but an electrical engineer who gets to work on this equipment, so don’t ask me chemistry questions.)
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Earl Grey, hot.
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<Insert AXE body spray joke here>
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Cmon. You know that whatever comes out of that thing will be almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
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Unidentified Fetid Objects?
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Planned for up to 16 light years away, but for how close our own solar system is, we’d be remiss if we didn’t try this out on every nearby celestial body just in case. Who knows?
From what I read, Mars and the moons of Jupiter are the most likely candidates.
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I see what you did there!
Seriously, though, there’s a thing that can make any molecule?
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By this standard Earth has likely already been classified by aliens as planet Pyew 
a category 5 reekfest.
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Clearly… an invitation to the dance:
What did one charged atom say to the other?
I’ve got my ion you.
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Uhhhhhhhh, no! Eight inch long necks are a genetic marker for… I don’t know what.
Scentaurians
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Check!
I blame the Guinness.
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Be like a cation and stay positive! 
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Two atoms are walking down the street. “Oh no! I lost an electron!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive!”
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“Did you look in your outer valence shell?”
“That’s not helpful!”
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“Iä! Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold.”
