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The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Target Selection of Nearby Stars and Galaxies
- Source :
- NASA Astrophysics Data System, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 129, 1-11, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 129, 975, pp. 1-11
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- We present the target selection for the Breakthrough Listen search for extraterrestrial intelligence during the first year of observations at the Green Bank Telescope, Parkes Telescope and Automated Planet Finder. On the way to observing 1,000,000 nearby stars in search of technological signals, we present three main sets of objects we plan to observe in addition to a smaller sample of exotica. We choose the 60 nearest stars, all within 5.1 pc from the sun. Such nearby stars offer the potential to observe faint radio signals from transmitters having a power similar to those on Earth. We add a list of 1649 stars drawn from the Hipparcos catalog that span the Hertzprung-Russell diagram, including all spectral types along the main sequence, subgiants, and giant stars. This sample offers diversity and inclusion of all stellar types, but with thoughtful limits and due attention to main sequence stars. Our targets also include 123 nearby galaxies composed of a "morphological-type-complete" sample of the nearest spirals, ellipticals, dwarf spherioidals, and irregulars. While their great distances hamper the detection of technological electromagnetic radiation, galaxies offer the opportunity to observe billions of stars simultaneously and to sample the bright end of the technological luminosity function. We will also use the Green Bank and Parkes telescopes to survey the plane and central bulge of the Milky Way. Finally, the complete target list includes several classes of exotica, including white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, black holes, neutron stars, and asteroids in our Solar System.
- Subjects :
- Physics
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Astronomy
Milky Way
White dwarf
FOS: Physical sciences
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Stellar classification
01 natural sciences
Galaxy
Stars
Space and Planetary Science
Bulge
0103 physical sciences
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Main sequence
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Luminosity function (astronomy)
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00046280
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- NASA Astrophysics Data System, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 129, 1-11, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 129, 975, pp. 1-11
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....da9f22aa29721a11e253d634e4da309c