Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence Meeting
Turin, 28th June 1996
ORGANIZERS
Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino
Peace Watch Committee
Centro di Astrodinamica "Giuseppe Colombo"
Club 2000
SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence)
OVERVIEW AND PERSPECTIVES
28 June 1996
Main Hall of the Academy of Sciences of Turin
Via Maria Vittoria 3 - Turin - Italy
PROGRAM
10.00 Prof. Roberto MALARODA - President, Academy of Sciences of Turin:
Welcome to Participants.
10.10 Prof. Attilio FERRARI - Director, Astronomical Observatory of Turin:
Astronomy, Radioastronomy and SETI.
10.20 Dr. Claudio MACCONE - SETI Day Organizer and Chairman:
SETI Day Opening.
SETI UP TO NOW
10.30 Prof. Frank DRAKE, President, SETI Institute, and Professor of
Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz:
(Title do be defined)
10.50 Prof. Guillermo LEMARCHAND, Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia
(CONICET) & Centro de Estudios Avanzados (Universidad de Buenos Aires):
SETI Activities from the Southern Hemisphere: a Review.
11.10 Coffee Break
11.30 Prof. Stuart BOWYER, University of California at Berkeley:
(Title about)The Berkeley Serendip Program for SETI.
11.50 Prof. Stelio MONTEBUGNOLI, Istituto di Radioastronomia del CNR, Bologna:
A Mini Spectrum Analyzer for SETI and Spectroscopy.
12.10 Prof. Guillermo LEMARCHAND, Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia
(CONICET) & Centro de Estudios Avanzados (Universidad de Buenos Aires):
Review of the Optical SETI Proposals.
12.30 Lunch Break
SETI PERSPECTIVES
15.00 Prof. Piero GALEOTTI, University of Turin, Italy:
Cosmological Background
15.20 Prof. Jean HEIDMANN, Observartoire de Paris Meudon:
Title to be defined
15.40 Prof. Ivàn ALMAR, Konkoly Observatory, Budapest:
SETI: Its Relation to Astronomy and Space Sciences.
16.00 Coffee Break
16.30 Prof. Donald TARTER, University of Alabama at Huntsville: Is The
Quantum Connection Another Cosmic Waterhole for SETI: A Call for Research.
16.50 Panel Discussion, introduced by Dr. Piero Bianucci, La Stampa
(Newspaper), Turin.
HISTORICAL NOTE
The Academy of Sciences of Turin
The Main Lecture Hall of the Academy of Sciences of Turin,
where the talks of our SETI Day are being given, may look surprisingly
"old" to visitors. It may thus be enlightening to spend a few words
about the history of the Academy of Sciences of Turin, the Institution
hosting our SETI Day.
Newtonian mechanics became firmly established in science since the
publication of Newton's "Principia" in 1686. This book, however, had been
written in a difficult geometrical and Latin language, that could hardly
reach a very large range of readers. After 1700, there was thus an obvious
need to "translate" Newton's guidelines into the spoken modern European
languages as well as into an "easy" mathematical notation that would enable
further progress to be made. Both these requirements were fulfilled in France
in about the years 1700-1750. In fact, on the one hand, French became then
established as the most widely spoken language in the upper class virtually
all over Europe; and, on the other hand, the easy Calculus notation
introduced by Leibniz in 1684, became the systematic tool of all mathematical
investigation on the Continent of Europe (England did not accept this
notation until 1820). Around 1750 France was thus the leading country in
Europe (and in the world) in applying the Calculus to all branches of sciences.
About 1750, Italy was not a politically unified country: half a dozen small
and backard State were dividing her territory among themselves. The State
ruled by the Savoy dynasty, also known as Kingdom of Sardinia after 1720.
ABSTRACTS
(TITLE TO BE DEFINED)
Frank D. DRAKE
President, SETI Institute
2035 Landings Drive, Mountain View, California 94043, USA
Professor of Astrophysics - University of California at Santa Cruz
E-mail:
SETI ACTIVITIES FROM THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE: A REVIEW
Guillermo A. LEMARCHAND
Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (CONICET) &
Centro de Estudios Avanzados (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
C.C. 8 - Sucursal 25; (1425) Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
E-mail: lemar@seti.edu.ar
A brief description of all the SETI activities, over the past thirty years,
in the Southern Hemisphere is done. The analysis, results and projects
generated at the Argentine Institute for Radio Astronomy (IAR) is discussed
in detail, with special emphasis in Project META II. Project META II (Mega
Channel ExtraTerrestrial Assay), is a full-sky survey for artificial
narrow-band signals, that has been conducted from one of the of two IAR's 30
m radiotelescopes. The search was performed near the 1420 MHz line of
neutral hydrogen, using a 8.4 x 10^6 channel Fourier spectrometers of 0.05
Hz resolution and 400 kHz instantaneous bandwidth. The observing frequency
was corrected both for motions with respect to three astronomical inertial
frames, and for the effect of Earth's rotation, which provides a
characteristic changing signature for narrow-band signals of
extraterrestrial origin. Among the 2 x 10^13 spectral channels analyzed 19
extra-statistical events were found exceeding the a threshold of 1.7 x
10^-23 W m^-2. The strongest signals that survive culling for terrestrial
interference lie in or near the Galactic Plane.
The first high resolution southern target search around 71 stars (-90^o <
delta < -10^o) was made using the same spectrometer. In this search "all"
the stars at distances nearer than 5 pc were included as well as those stars
that are falling between +0.6 and +1.0 in the (B-V) color index, with
spectral class V, that are at distances nearer than 15.5 pc. Stars bluer
than +0.6 have main sequence lifetimes that are too short to provide
long-term environmental stability, while stars redder than +1.0 cannot
presently be detected. The observations were performed tracking each star at
least for 60 minutes at three different epochs.
The third part of the program consisted in observing simultaneously
identical celestial coordinates (-30^o < delta < -10^o) between a similar
system (antenna + spectrometer) located
at Harvard/Smithsonian Agassis Station.
Using the Cordes-Lazio-Sagan Model, based in scattering theory, simulations
and empirical constraints on interstellar scintillations it is possible to
discuss the intermittency of radio signals from extraterrestrial
intelligence. It is shown that these narrow-band non-repeating "events"
found by Project META can be generated by (a) radiometer noise fluctuations,
(b) a population of constant galactic sources which undergo deep fading and
amplification due to interstellar scintillation, consistent with ETI
transmissions and (c) real, transient signals of either terrestrial or
extraterrestrial origin. The Bayesian test shows that hypothesis (b) and (c)
are both highly preferred to (a), but the first two are about equally
likely. Using this analysis we discuss the best observing strategies to
determine the real origin of these "events".
A brief description of the new META II hardware and software up-date is made.
(TITLE TO BE DEFINED)
Stuart BOWYER
University of California at Berkeley
E-mail: bowyer@ssl.berkeley.edu
MINI SPECTRUM ANALYZER FOR SETI AND SPECTROSCOPY
Stelio MONTEBUGNOLI
Istituto di Radioastronomia del CNR
Località Aia Cavicchio - Via Fiorentina - C.P. 14
Villa Fontana - I-40059 Medicina (BO) - ITALY
E-mail: montebugnoli@astbol.bo.cnr.it
A real time Fast Fourier Transform digital spectrometer is presented. The
system is fully programmable. The present configuration allows to measure
the power spectrum of an incoming signal with a bandwidth of up to 20 MHz
and 131072 channels. An upgrade of the system is in progress. This new
approach to the spectrum analysis will open new observational
capabilities in radioastronomy and in other fields.
A REVIEW OF THE OPTICAL SETI PROPOSALS
Guillermo A. LEMARCHAND
Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (CONICET) &
Centro de Estudios Avanzados (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
C.C. 8 - Sucursal 25; (1425) Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
E-mail: lemar@seti.edu.ar
A review of the different proposals made to establish contact with
hypothetical planetary neighbors is done. For almost 100 years (~1822-1921)
the dominant paradigm for signaling extraterrestrial beings, were based in
the exchange of light beam signals. After the success of wireless
transatlantic communications and the discovery of radio signals from the
cosmos, the main scientific proposals to contact extraterrestrials were
based on radio signals. Nevertheless, the development of lasers and other
non-linear optical devices, led into a new set of proposals to use them for
interplanetary and interstellar communication means. A review of these
proposals and the detection of extraterrestrial technological activities in
the optical domain is made. A summary of the requirements need to explore
the astrophysics of shortest timescales is described, in order to develop
the nano and sub-nanosecond detectors that could be used to detect
interstellar pulsed laser signals. A description of the current "amateur"
optical SETI systems is described as well as other professional programs.
COSMOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
Piero GALEOTTI
Dept. of Physics - University of Turin
Via Pietro Giuria, 1 - I-10125 Torino (TO) - ITALY
E-mail:
(TITLE TO BE DEFINED)
Jean HEIDMANN
Observatoire de Paris - Meudon
F-92195 Meudon - FRANCE
E-mail: heidmann@obspm.fr
SETI - ITS RELATION TO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCES
Ivàn ALMAR
Konkolyi Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1525 Budapest XII - Box 67 - HUNGARY
E-mail: almar@ogyalla.konkoly.hu
The subject of all three disciplines is the investigation of outer space
including all kinds of celestial bodies. Fundamental differences are evident
in their philosophy, in their methodology and in their relation to the
scientific community and to public opinion. Neither of them is directly
profit-oriented activity, therefore their mutual dependence is obvious in
spite of the fact that they are competitors in the struggle for funding and
for public support. The paper gives a survey of advantages and drawbacks of
these disciplines in the present difficult situation and suggests some
argumentation of common interest - based on the timely concept of
information as the most important resource - as part of a common strategy
for progress.
IS THE QUANTUM CONNECTION ANOTHER COSMIC WATERHOLE FOR SETI ? : A CALL FOR RESEARCH
Donald TARTER
University of Alabama at Huntsville
591 Sharpes Hollow Road - New Market, AL 35761 - USA
Phone and Fax: (205) 379 3580
Visiting Lecturer - International Space University
One of the major criticism of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence
(SETI) is that even if succesful, a meaningful interstellar dialogue would
be impossible because of the light-speed limitations on transmissions from
one civilization to another. Such limitations would mean the delay of
decades to millenia in communications between civilizations in space.
This paper argues that SETI researchers should look closely at the
possibilities of quantum communication through space using the cosmic
connection called the Einstein, Podolski, Rosen (EPR) effect. Current
scientific opinion is solidly against the possibility of using the EPR for
interstellar communication purposes. This paper argues that very advanced
extraterrestrial civilizations may ave developed ways to exploit the quantum
connection. Therefore we should reconsider the possibility of using the EPR
effect for instant transfer of information over vast distances.