SETI & Technosignatures

The Breakthrough Listen Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
astro-ph.HE
July 14, 2019
Filed under
The Breakthrough Listen Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Green Bank Observatory
Green Bank Observatory

The discovery of the ubiquity of habitable extrasolar planets, combined with revolutionary advances in instrumentation and observational capabilities, have ushered in a renaissance in the millenia-old quest to answer our most profound question about the Universe and our place within it – Are we alone?

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, announced in July 2015 as a 10-year 100M USD program, is the most comprehensive effort in history to quantify the distribution of advanced, technologically capable life in the universe. In this white paper, we outline the status of the on-going observing campaign with our primary observing facilities, as well as planned activities with these instruments over the next few years. We also list collaborative facilities which will conduct searches for technosignatures in either primary observing mode, or commensally. We highlight some of the novel analysis techniques we are bringing to bear on multi-petabyte data sets, including machine learning tools we are deploying to search for a broader range of technosignatures than was previously possible.

Vishal Gajjar, Andrew Siemion, Steve Croft, Bryan Brzycki, Marta Burgay, Tobia Carozzi, Raimondo Concu, Daniel Czech, David DeBoer, Julia DeMarines, Jamie Drew, J. Emilio Enriquez, James Fawcett, Peter Gallagher, Michael Gerret, Nectaria Gizani, Greg Hellbourg, Jamie Holder, Howard Isaacson, Sanjay Kudale, Brian Lacki, Matthew Lebofsky, Di Li, David H. E. MacMahon, Joe McCauley, Andrea Melis, Emilio Molinari, Pearse Murphy, Delphine Perrodin, Maura Pilia, Danny C. Price, Claire Webb, Dan Werthimer, David Williams, Pete Worden, Philippe Zarka, Yunfan Gerry Zhang
(Submitted on 11 Jul 2019)

Comments: Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey 2020, APC white paper, To be published in BAAS
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:1907.05519 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:1907.05519v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: Vishal Gajjar
[v1] Thu, 11 Jul 2019 23:13:21 UTC (72 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.05519
Astrobiology

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻