Berkeley SETI Research Center

Last updated
Berkeley SETI Research Center
Formation2012;12 years ago (2012)
PurposeDetermine the prevalence of intelligent life in the universe
Headquarters Berkeley, California
Director
 Andrew Siemion
Parent organization
 University of California, Berkeley
Website seti.berkeley.edu
Screen shot of the screensaver for SETI@home, a distributed computing project in which volunteers donate idle computer power to analyze radio signals for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. SETI@home Multi-Beam screensaver.png
Screen shot of the screensaver for SETI@home, a distributed computing project in which volunteers donate idle computer power to analyze radio signals for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

The Berkeley SETI Research Center (BSRC) conducts experiments searching for optical and electromagnetic transmissions from intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations. [1] The center is based at the University of California, Berkeley.

Contents

The Berkeley SETI Research Center has several SETI searches operating at various wavelengths, from radio, through infrared, to visible light. These include SERENDIP, SEVENDIP, NIROSETI, [2] Breakthrough Listen, and SETI@home. The research center is also involved in the development of new telescopes and instrumentation.

The Berkeley SETI Research Center is independent of, but collaborates with, researchers at the SETI Institute. No unambiguous signals from extraterrestrial intelligence have been found. [3]

Breakthrough Listen

The Berkeley SETI Research Center also hosts the Breakthrough Listen program, [4] [5] [6] which is a ten-year initiative with $100 million funding begun in July 2015 to actively search for intelligent extraterrestrial communications in the universe, in a substantially expanded way, using resources that had not previously been extensively used for the purpose. [7] [8] [9] It has been described as the most comprehensive search for alien communications to date. [8] Announced in July 2015, the project is observing for thousands of hours every year on two major radio telescopes, the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, the Parkes Observatory in Australia, and the Automated Planet Finder telescope. [1] [10]

SETI@home

The center also created the SETI@home, an Internet-based public volunteer computing project employing the BOINC software platform, hosted by their Space Sciences Laboratory. Its purpose is to analyze radio data from radio telescopes for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

SERENDIP

The SERENDIP program takes advantage of ongoing "mainstream" radio telescope observations and analyzes deep space radio telescope data that it obtains while other astronomers are using the telescope. [11] SERENDIP observations have been conducted at frequencies between 400 MHz and 5 GHz, with most observations near the so-called Cosmic Water Hole (1.42 GHz (21 cm) neutral hydrogen and 1.66 GHz hydroxyl transitions). [11]

SEVENDIP

SEVENDIP, which stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Visible Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations, was a project using visible wavelengths to search for extraterrestrial life's intelligent signals from outer space. [12]

NIROSETI

The NIROSETI (Near-InfraRed Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program searches for artificial signals in the optical (visible) and near infrared (NIR) wavebands of the electromagnetic spectrum. [13] [14] It uses the Nickel 1-m telescope at the Lick Observatory in California, USA. [15] The instrument saw its first light on 15 March 2015 and was commissioned in January 2016.

The NIROSETI instrument employs a new generation of near-infrared (900 to 1700 nm) detectors, cooled at -25 °C, that have a high speed response (>1 GHz) and gain comparable to photomultiplier tubes, while also producing very low noise, [14] and significantly reducing false positives. [16] Its field-of-view is 2.5"x2.5" each, [17] and focuses on detecting short (nanosecond) pulsed laser emissions. The NIROSETI instrument is also being used to study variability of very short natural near-infrared transient phenomena. [14] [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other planets.

Extraterrestrial intelligence, or non-human intelligence (NHI), refers to hypothetical intelligent extraterrestrial life. No such life has ever been proven to exist in the Solar System except for humans on Earth, and its existence on other star systems is still speculative. The question of whether other inhabited worlds might exist has been debated since ancient times. The modern form of the concept emerged when the Copernican Revolution demonstrated that the Earth was a planet revolving around the Sun, and other planets were, conversely, other worlds. The question of whether other inhabited planets or moons exist was a natural consequence of this new understanding. It has become one of the most speculative questions in science and is a central theme of science fiction and popular culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SETI@home</span> BOINC based volunteer computing project searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence

SETI@home is a project of the Berkeley SETI Research Center to analyze radio signals with the aim of searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Until March 2020, it was run as an Internet-based public volunteer computing project that employed the BOINC software platform. It is hosted by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, and is one of many activities undertaken as part of the worldwide SETI effort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jill Tarter</span> American astronomer

Jill Cornell Tarter is an American astronomer best known for her work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Tarter is the former director of the Center for SETI Research, holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. In 2002, Discover magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SETI Institute</span> Not-for-profit research organization

The SETI Institute is a not-for-profit research organization incorporated in 1984 whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe, and to use this knowledge to inspire and guide present and future generations, sharing knowledge with the public, the press, and the government. SETI stands for the "search for extraterrestrial intelligence".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wow! signal</span> 1977 narrowband radio signal from SETI

The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, then used to support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The signal appeared to come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and bore expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Telescope Array</span> Radio telescope array

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), formerly known as the One Hectare Telescope (1hT), is a radio telescope array dedicated to astronomical observations and a simultaneous search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The array is situated at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Shasta County, 290 miles (470 km) northeast of San Francisco, California.

Leuschner Observatory, originally called the Students' Observatory, is an observatory jointly operated by the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. The observatory was built in 1886 on the Berkeley campus. For many years, it was directed by Armin Otto Leuschner, for whom the observatory was renamed in 1951. In 1965, it was relocated to its present home in Lafayette, California, approximately 10 miles (16 km) east of the Berkeley campus. In 2012, the physics and astronomy department of San Francisco State University became a partner.

SERENDIP is a Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program originated by the Berkeley SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Charles Stuart Bowyer was an American astronomer and academic. He was a professor at the University of California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Werthimer</span>

Dan Werthimer is co-founder and chief scientist of the SETI@home project and directs other UC Berkeley SETI searches at radio, infrared and visible wavelengths, including the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations (SERENDIP). He is also the principal investigator for the worldwide Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER).

SEVENDIP, which stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Visible Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations, was a project developed by the Berkeley SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley that used visible wavelengths to search for extraterrestrial life's intelligent signals from outer space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technosignature</span> Property that provides scientific evidence for the presence of technology

Technosignature or technomarker is any measurable property or effect that provides scientific evidence of past or present technology. Technosignatures are analogous to biosignatures, which signal the presence of life, whether intelligent or not. Some authors prefer to exclude radio transmissions from the definition, but such restrictive usage is not widespread. Jill Tarter has proposed that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) be renamed "the search for technosignatures". Various types of technosignatures, such as radiation leakage from megascale astroengineering installations such as Dyson spheres, the light from an extraterrestrial ecumenopolis, or Shkadov thrusters with the power to alter the orbits of stars around the Galactic Center, may be detectable with hypertelescopes. Some examples of technosignatures are described in Paul Davies's 2010 book The Eerie Silence, although the terms "technosignature" and "technomarker" do not appear in the book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breakthrough Listen</span> Initiative to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life

Breakthrough Listen is a project to search for intelligent extraterrestrial communications in the Universe. With $100 million in funding and thousands of hours of dedicated telescope time on state-of-the-art facilities, it is the most comprehensive search for alien communications to date. The project began in January 2016, and is expected to continue for 10 years. It is a component of Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Initiatives program. The science program for Breakthrough Listen is based at Berkeley SETI Research Center, located in the Astronomy Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

Breakthrough Initiatives is a science-based program founded in 2015 and funded by Julia and Yuri Milner, also of Breakthrough Prize, to search for extraterrestrial intelligence over a span of at least 10 years. The program is divided into multiple projects. Breakthrough Listen will comprise an effort to search over 1,000,000 stars for artificial radio or laser signals. A parallel project called Breakthrough Message is an effort to create a message "representative of humanity and planet Earth". The project Breakthrough Starshot, co-founded with Mark Zuckerberg, aims to send a swarm of probes to the nearest star at about 20% the speed of light. The project Breakthrough Watch aims to identify and characterize Earth-sized, rocky planets around Alpha Centauri and other stars within 20 light years of Earth. Breakthrough plans to send a mission to Saturn's moon Enceladus, in search for life in its warm ocean, and in 2018 signed a partnership agreement with NASA for the project.

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Andrew Patrick Vincent Siemion is an astrophysicist and director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center. His research interests include high energy time-variable celestial phenomena, astronomical instrumentation and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Andrew Siemion is the Principal Investigator for the Breakthrough Listen program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NIROSETI</span> Astronomical program to search for artificial signals

The NIROSETI is an astronomical program to search for artificial signals in the optical (visible) and near infrared (NIR) wavebands of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is the first dedicated near-infrared SETI experiment. The instrument was created by a collaboration of scientists from the University of California, San Diego, Berkeley SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Toronto, and the SETI Institute. It uses the Anna Nickel 1-m telescope at the Lick Observatory, situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose, California, USA. The instrument was commissioned on 15 March 2015 and has been operated for more than 150 nights, and is still operational today.

Eric Korpela is a research astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, He is the director of the SETI@home project, a distributed computing project that was launched in 1999 to use individuals computers to analyze data collected in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Korpela notes that with modern-day mobile devices having greater capacities than personal computers did in 1999, SETI@home has developed an Android app to analyze data gathered by the Breakthrough Listen SETI project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2MASS 19281982-2640123</span> Star in the constellation of Sagittarius

2MASS 19281982-2640123 is a Sun-like star located in the area of Sagittarius constellation where the Wow! Signal is most widely believed to have originated. The star was identified in a 2022 paper as the most similar to the Sun out of the three solar analogs found inside the sky region. Located 1,800 light years away, it was estimated to be only 130 light years away from Claudio Maccone's estimation where a communicative civilization is most likely to exist.

References

  1. 1 2 Berkeley SETI - Home page. Steve Croft, Berkeley SETI Research Center, University of California, Berkeley. 2017.
  2. ↑ SETI Explores the Near-Infrared. Paul Gilster, Centauri Dreams. 27 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Berkeley SETI Research Center - FAQ. 2017.
  4. ↑ "Berkeley SETI". seti.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  5. ↑ "Breakthrough Initiatives". breakthroughinitiatives.org. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  6. ↑ "Breakthrough Listen Initiative - News from Department of Astronomy". astro.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  7. ↑ Feltman, Rachel (20 July 2015). "Stephen Hawking announces $100 million hunt for alien life". The Washington Post . Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  8. 1 2 Merali, Zeeya (2015). "Search for extraterrestrial intelligence gets a $100-million boost". Nature. 523 (7561): 392–3. Bibcode:2015Natur.523..392M. doi: 10.1038/nature.2015.18016 . PMID   26201576.
  9. ↑ Rundle, Michael (20 July 2015). "$100m Breakthrough Listen is 'largest ever' search for alien civilisations". Wired. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  10. ↑ Sample, Ian (20 July 2015). "Anybody out there? $100m radio wave project to scan far regions for alien life". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  11. 1 2 "SERENDIP". UC Berkeley. Archived from the original on 2013-03-11. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
  12. ↑ "The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence at Berkeley". University of California at Berkeley. Archived from the original on 2013-02-12. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
  13. ↑ SETI Explores the Near-Infrared. Paul Gilster, Centauri Dreams, 27 March 2015.
  14. 1 2 3 A near-infrared SETI experiment: probability distribution of false coincidences (PDF). Jrerome Maire, Shelley A. Wright, Dan Werthimer, Richard R. Treffers, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Remington P. S. Stone, Frank Drake, Andrew Siemion. arXiv. 2014.
  15. ↑ Steven S. Vogt et al., APF - The Lick Observatory Automated Planet Finder , 26 February 2014.
  16. ↑ near-infrared SETI experiment: commissioning, data analysis, and performance results (PDF). Jerome Maire, Shelley A. Wright, Patrick Dorval, Frank D. Drake, Andres Duenas, Howard Isaacson, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Andrew Siemion, Remington P. S. Stone, Melisa Tallis, Richard R. Treffers, and Dan Werthimer. 2016.
  17. ↑ A near-Infrared SETI Experiment: Alignment and Astrometric precision. Duenas, Andres; Maire, Jerome; Wright, Shelley; Drake, Frank D.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Siemion, Andrew; Stone, Remington P. S.; Tallis, Melisa; Treffers, Richard R.; Werthimer, Dan. American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #228, id.120.04. June 2016.
  18. ↑ Search for extraterrestrial intelligence extends to new realms. University of California. Published by PhysOrg. 20 March 2016.
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