$100 Million Breakthrough Listen Initiative Publicly Sharing Data from Unprecedented Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe

• Published date: 12 April 2016
• Publication title: Saudi Arabia News Gazette

SAN FRANCISCO: 12 April 2016 (PRNewswire) Breakthrough Listen - the $100 million initiative to find signs of intelligent life in the universe - is releasing initial observational datasets to the world, Breakthrough Initiatives announced today.

January 2016 saw 'first light' for Breakthrough Listen, with observations marking the start of the 10-year effort announced in July 2015 at London's Royal Society by Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, Lord Martin Rees, Ann Druyan, and Frank Drake. Hundreds of hours of observations have taken place using the Green Bank Radio Telescope in West Virginia and Lick Observatory's Automated Planet Finder in Mt. Hamilton, California.

Today Breakthrough Listen is releasing the first batch of data for public access at the Breakthrough Initiatives website (www.breakthroughinitiatives.org). Data from the Green Bank Telescope is also available to users of UC Berkeley's SETI@home software.

Observations made so far by Breakthrough Listen include most of the stars within 16 light years of Earth (including stars such as 51 Pegasi that are known to host extra-solar planets), and a sample of stars between 16 and 160 light years away. This included nearby sun-like and giant stars as well as numerous binary stars. The search also targeted around 40 of the nearest spiral galaxies, including members of the Maffei Group in the direction of the constellation Cassiopeia. Stars within 16 light years accessible only from the Southern Hemisphere, such as Alpha Centauri, will be observed by the end of the year with the Parkes Telescope.

This year's Observation Plan for all three telescopes has been published and can be found at www.breakthroughinitiatives.org. Planned observations include:

1. Green Bank Radio Telescope

World's deepest searches for artificial signals in five key samples (Northern Hemisphere)

All 43 stars within 5 parsecs, at 1-15 GHz. First-ever complete SETI survey within 5 parsecs. Sensitive to 'Earth-leakage' levels of radio transmission.

1000 stars of all spectral-types (OBAFGKM). Within 50 parsecs. 1-15 GHz.

One Million Nearby Stars. In 2016, first 5,000 stars; 1 minute exposure (1-15 GHz)

Centers of 100 nearby galaxies: spirals, ellipticals, dwarfs, irregulars (1-15 GHz)

Exotic Stars: 20 White Dwarfs, 20 Neutron stars, 20 black holes

2. Parkes Radio Telescope

World's deepest searches for artificial signals in six key samples (Southern Hemisphere):

All 43 stars (at south declinations) within 5 parsecs, at 1-15 GHz. First-ever complete SETI...