Andrew Yee[_1_]
June 4th 08, 10:28 PM
Office of News and Information
Johns Hopkins University
901 South Bond Street, Suite 540
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Phone: 443-287-9960 Fax: 443-287-9920
CONTACT: Lisa De Nike
(443) 287-9960
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 4, 2008
Team Hopes to Use New Technology to Search for ET's
A Johns Hopkins astronomer is a member of a team briefing fellow scientists
about plans to use new technology to take advantage of recent, promising
ideas on where to search for possible extraterrestrial intelligence in our
galaxy.
Richard Conn Henry, a professor in the Henry A. Rowland Department of
Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins' Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and
Sciences, is joining forces with Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute and
Steven Kilston of the Henry Foundation Inc., a Silver Spring, Md., think
tank, to search a swath of the sky known as the ecliptic plane. They propose
to use new Allen Telescope Array, operated as a partnership between the SETI
Institute in Mountain View, Calif., and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at
the University of California, Berkeley.
Comprising hundreds of specially produced small dishes that marry modern,
miniaturized electronics and innovative technologies with computer
processing, the ATA provides researchers with the capability to search for
possible signals from technologically advanced civilizations elsewhere in
our galaxy -- if, in fact, such civilizations exist and are transmitting in
this direction.
Employing this new equipment in a unique, targeted search for possible
civilizations enhances the chances of finding one, in the same way that a
search for a needle in a haystack is made easier if one knows at least
approximately where the needle was dropped, said Henry, who is speaking
about the proposal at the American Astronomical Society annual meeting in
St. Louis.
According to the researchers, the critical place to look is in the ecliptic,
a great circle around the sky that represents the plane of Earth's orbit.
The sun, as viewed from Earth, appears annually to pass along this circle.
Any civilization that lies within a fraction of a degree of the ecliptic
could annually detect Earth passing in front of the sun. This ecliptic band
comprises only about 3 percent of the sky.
"If those civilizations are out there -- and we don't know that they are --
those that inhabit star systems that lie close to the plane of the Earth's
orbit around the sun will be the most motivated to send communications
signals toward Earth," Henry said, "because those civilizations will surely
have detected our annual transit across the face of the sun, telling them
that Earth lies in a habitable zone, where liquid water is stable. Through
spectroscopic analysis of our atmosphere, they will know that Earth likely
bears life.
"Knowing where to look tremendously reduces the amount of radio telescope
time we will need to conduct the search," he said.
Most of the 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy are located in the
galactic plane, forming another great circle around the sky. The two great
circles intersect near Taurus and Sagittarius, two constellations opposite
each other in the Earth's sky -- areas where the search will initially
concentrate.
"The crucial implication is that this targeted search in a favored part of
the sky -- the ecliptic stripe, if you will -- may provide us with
significantly better prospects for detecting extraterrestrials than has any
previous search effort," Kilston said.
Ray Villard of the Space Telescope Science Institute, who will join the team
in its observations, said that in November 2001, STScI publicized Hubble
Space Telescope observations of a transiting planet and "it occurred to me
that alien civilizations along the ecliptic would likely be doing similar
observations to Earth."
"Once they had determined Earth to be habitable, they might initiate sending
signals," Villard said.
Shostak of SETI notes that the Allen Telescope Array is ideal for the team's
plans to search the entire ecliptic over time, and not just the
intersections of the ecliptic and galactic planes.
The team's presentation at the AAS meeting also explores possible scenarios
for the appearance of civilizations in our galaxy.
"These models are nothing but pure speculation. But hey it is educational
to explore possibilities," Henry said. "We have no idea how many -- if any
-- other civilizations there are in our galaxy. One critical factor is how
long a civilization -- for example, our own -- remains in existence. If, as
we dearly hope, the answer is many millions of years, then even if
civilizations are fairly rare, those in our ecliptic plane will have learned
of our existence. They will know that life exists on Earth and they will
have the patience to beam easily detectable radio (or optical) signals in
our direction, if necessary, for millions of years in the hope, now
realized, that a technological civilization will appear on Earth."
Images from the team's presentation are available here:
http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/seti.html
Digital photos of Henry are available. Contact Lisa De Nike at 443-287-9960.
Johns Hopkins University
901 South Bond Street, Suite 540
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Phone: 443-287-9960 Fax: 443-287-9920
CONTACT: Lisa De Nike
(443) 287-9960
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 4, 2008
Team Hopes to Use New Technology to Search for ET's
A Johns Hopkins astronomer is a member of a team briefing fellow scientists
about plans to use new technology to take advantage of recent, promising
ideas on where to search for possible extraterrestrial intelligence in our
galaxy.
Richard Conn Henry, a professor in the Henry A. Rowland Department of
Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins' Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and
Sciences, is joining forces with Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute and
Steven Kilston of the Henry Foundation Inc., a Silver Spring, Md., think
tank, to search a swath of the sky known as the ecliptic plane. They propose
to use new Allen Telescope Array, operated as a partnership between the SETI
Institute in Mountain View, Calif., and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at
the University of California, Berkeley.
Comprising hundreds of specially produced small dishes that marry modern,
miniaturized electronics and innovative technologies with computer
processing, the ATA provides researchers with the capability to search for
possible signals from technologically advanced civilizations elsewhere in
our galaxy -- if, in fact, such civilizations exist and are transmitting in
this direction.
Employing this new equipment in a unique, targeted search for possible
civilizations enhances the chances of finding one, in the same way that a
search for a needle in a haystack is made easier if one knows at least
approximately where the needle was dropped, said Henry, who is speaking
about the proposal at the American Astronomical Society annual meeting in
St. Louis.
According to the researchers, the critical place to look is in the ecliptic,
a great circle around the sky that represents the plane of Earth's orbit.
The sun, as viewed from Earth, appears annually to pass along this circle.
Any civilization that lies within a fraction of a degree of the ecliptic
could annually detect Earth passing in front of the sun. This ecliptic band
comprises only about 3 percent of the sky.
"If those civilizations are out there -- and we don't know that they are --
those that inhabit star systems that lie close to the plane of the Earth's
orbit around the sun will be the most motivated to send communications
signals toward Earth," Henry said, "because those civilizations will surely
have detected our annual transit across the face of the sun, telling them
that Earth lies in a habitable zone, where liquid water is stable. Through
spectroscopic analysis of our atmosphere, they will know that Earth likely
bears life.
"Knowing where to look tremendously reduces the amount of radio telescope
time we will need to conduct the search," he said.
Most of the 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy are located in the
galactic plane, forming another great circle around the sky. The two great
circles intersect near Taurus and Sagittarius, two constellations opposite
each other in the Earth's sky -- areas where the search will initially
concentrate.
"The crucial implication is that this targeted search in a favored part of
the sky -- the ecliptic stripe, if you will -- may provide us with
significantly better prospects for detecting extraterrestrials than has any
previous search effort," Kilston said.
Ray Villard of the Space Telescope Science Institute, who will join the team
in its observations, said that in November 2001, STScI publicized Hubble
Space Telescope observations of a transiting planet and "it occurred to me
that alien civilizations along the ecliptic would likely be doing similar
observations to Earth."
"Once they had determined Earth to be habitable, they might initiate sending
signals," Villard said.
Shostak of SETI notes that the Allen Telescope Array is ideal for the team's
plans to search the entire ecliptic over time, and not just the
intersections of the ecliptic and galactic planes.
The team's presentation at the AAS meeting also explores possible scenarios
for the appearance of civilizations in our galaxy.
"These models are nothing but pure speculation. But hey it is educational
to explore possibilities," Henry said. "We have no idea how many -- if any
-- other civilizations there are in our galaxy. One critical factor is how
long a civilization -- for example, our own -- remains in existence. If, as
we dearly hope, the answer is many millions of years, then even if
civilizations are fairly rare, those in our ecliptic plane will have learned
of our existence. They will know that life exists on Earth and they will
have the patience to beam easily detectable radio (or optical) signals in
our direction, if necessary, for millions of years in the hope, now
realized, that a technological civilization will appear on Earth."
Images from the team's presentation are available here:
http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/seti.html
Digital photos of Henry are available. Contact Lisa De Nike at 443-287-9960.