Israeli-backed project expands search for alien life
A major scientific effort in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, Breakthrough Listen is one of the Breakthrough Initiatives (SETI) programs.
The Breakthrough Listen project, funded by Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner, plans to use the MeerKAT radio telescope to expand its reach 1,000 times in search of evidence of life, increasing the scope of the search for extraterrestrial life throughout the universe.
The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory hosted a conference in South Africa at the end of last week where the announcement was made (SARAO).
A major scientific effort in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, Breakthrough Listen is one of the Breakthrough Initiatives (SETI) programs.
In what ways will the Breakthrough Listen project look for intelligent life in the universe?
Breakthrough Listen researchers are currently looking for radio signals that might point to the existence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. The American Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and Australian Parkes Telescope, among many other observational tools, were used to accomplish this.
But MeerKAT, based in the Karoo region of South Africa, is a bit more advanced, with a 64-antenna array that can cover 50 times more sky than GBT.
“Such a large field of view usually contains many stars that are interesting targets for technosigniture,” explained Breakthrough Listen principal investigator Dr. Andrew Siemion. “Our new supercomputer allows us to combine signals from the 64 dishes to obtain high-resolution scans of these targets with excellent sensitivity, all without affecting the research of other astronomers who are using the array.”
The variety of antennas also gives the Breakthrough Listen researchers an advantage, because it will be easier for them to rule out any potential interference from man-made signals such as satellites.
“It will only take us two years to search over a million nearby stars,” said Breakthrough Listen’s MeerKAT project scientist Dr. Cherry Ng. “MeerKAT will provide us with the ability to detect a transmitter similar to Earth’s brightest radio beacons at a distance of 250 light-years in our routine observation mode.”
The Breakthrough Listen team has already determined one of their initial targets, and it will be one that is very close to home.
“One of the first targets we’ll look at is our nearest neighbor star, Proxima Centauri, which appears to host two small, rocky planets in the star’s habitable zone.”
doctor S. Pete Worden
“One of the first targets we’ll look at is our nearest neighbor star, Proxima Centauri, which appears to host two small, rocky planets in the star’s habitable zone,” said Breakthrough Initiatives Executive Director Dr. S. Pete Worden.
“Routine observations with the Listen backend on MeerKAT are ongoing, and the team looks forward to sharing the first scientific results in the coming months.”
Innovative Initiatives have also shown interest in this planet before.
An additional mission to observe Proxima Centauri was announced by the Breakthrough Initiatives Breakthrough Watch project last year.
The name of the telescope, TOLIMAN, is an abbreviation of Telescope for Orbit Locus Interferometric Monitoring of our Astronomical Neighborhood and a reinterpretation of the old Arabic designation for Alpha Centauri.
This demonstrates the intense scientific curiosity about our solar system’s nearest neighbor, although it remains unclear what discoveries might be made there.
