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Exoplanets and SETI Exoplanets and The Search for Life in the Universe Albert Nelson Marquis Dr. Harold A. Geller Lifetime Achievement Award George Mason University NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador How Are We Looking? • In our Solar System we can “touch” • Bring back samples Or we can “touch” with landers InSight How Are We Looking? • In the rest of the universe • We must use the electromagnetic spectrum How Are We Looking for Planets? • Planet Formation • Extrasolar Planets (> 4,102) • Different Detection Methods • “Earth-like” Planets • More information needed 6 Where Are We Looking? •In our Solar System •Europa (and others) • But a good place to look? Where Are We Looking? • In our Solar System • The four innermost planets are called terrestrial planets • Relatively small (with diameters of 5000 to 13,000 km) • High average densities (4000 to 5500 kg/m3) • Composed primarily of rocky materials Where Are We Looking? • In our Solar System • Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are Jovian planets • Large diameters (50,000 to 143,000 km) • Low average densities (700 to 1700 kg/m3) • Composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Where Are We Looking? • In our Solar System • Moons • Some (3) comparable in size to the planet Mercury (2 are larger) • The remaining moons of the solar system are much smaller than these Where Are We Looking? • The Kepler Space Telescope Mission type Space observatory Operator NASA / LASP COSPAR ID 2009-011A SATCAT no. 34380 Website kepler.nasa.gov Planned: 3.5 years Mission duration Final: 9 years, 7 months, 23 days Spacecraft properties Manufacturer Ball Aerospace & Technologies Launch mass 1,052.4 kg (2,320 lb)[1] Dry mass 1,040.7 kg (2,294 lb)[1] Payload mass 478 kg (1,054 lb)[1] Dimensions 4.7 m × 2.7 m (15.4 ft × 8.9 ft)[1] Power 1100 watts[1] Start of mission Launch date March 7, 2009, 03:49:57 UTC[2] Rocket Delta II (7925-10L) Launch site Cape Canaveral SLC-17B Contractor United Launch Alliance Entered service May 12, 2009, 09:01 UTC End of mission Deactivated November 15, 2018 Where Are We Looking? • In the Milky Way Galaxy • TESS • Almost everywhere Future Instruments to Look Reasons for radio SETI 1. Interstellar dust selectively blocks shorter wavelengths (higher frequencies) strongly suggests we use the IR or radio parts of the spectrum (long wavelengths or small frequencies). But IR is dominated by Earth’s atmospheric molecular emission if search from surface, so that leaves radio. Note that radio SETI allows reception from the entire galaxy, but optical isn’t that bad, since we can see stars out to ~ 1 kpc. Besides, most radio searches are concentrating on nearby stars anyway. (We don’t want 1000-year “conversations.”) 2. Radio photons are cheaper to send than optical photons (because energies are ~ 100,000 times smaller for radio). Arecibo Home of SERENDIP, SETI@home, Phoenix 3. The main consideration is noise: Here “noise” means anything that is not an alien signal--any kind of interference. We should listen (or send) where the noise is minimized, so that we can recognize the (probably weak) signal. Noise is minimum in a region of the radio part of the spectrum. This is summarized in a classic graph shown on next slide. Allen Telescope Array, SETI Institute, N. Calif. Alien signaling: Choosing a wavelength range that minimizes “noise” -- anything that is not an alien signal Avoid very low frequencies (wavelengths too large), because synchrotron radiation from supernova remnants dominates there. (Far left in figure) Avoid frequencies higher than about 10 GHz because of H2O and O2 emission from Earth’s atmosphere. Cosmic microwave background radiation sets “floor” at intermediate frequencies, and that is where the noise is minimum, and where we should search. A message will arrive in a narrow wavelength band or bands, not spread over the whole 1-10 GHz region. There are 10 billion 1 Hz bands in this range. How to decide which ones to pick? First, must understand bandwidth. Which frequency? If it is true that narrow-band signal is the only sensible approach, how will we decide which band to use? Also known as “beacon frequencies” or “hailing frequencies” or “magic frequencies”: HI (neutral hydrogen) 21cm (wavelength) line? The frequency is 1420 Megahertz which equals 1.42GHz. Natural, abundant, but lots of interference by interstellar gas. OH line at 1.7 GHz? H + OH = H2O, so maybe region between these two --> “the waterhole”. Alien civilizations will know that these two lines are from the dissociation products of water, whatever they call H and OH. Allen Telescope Array uses this range. OTHER ‘MAGIC” FREQUENCIES •Some frequency based on combinations of fundamental constants of nature? (e.g. speed of light, Planck’s constant, …) The combination can be expressed without referring to “our” units (e.g. meters) •”Intergalactic” frequency standard based on temperature of cosmic background radiation? •Many others have been suggested. Too many! None in use today. What frequency should be used to listen or send interstellar messages? From the Earth’s surface, most radiation is blocked by the atmosphere. The exceptions are optical (visual) and radio photons. Earth’s atmosphere also blocks out most of the infrared part of the spectrum due to water vapor in our atmosphere. From the highest mountains or a jet plane, the infrared is barely accessible, but not for the continuous kinds of surveys we have in mind. Note that if we could do such a survey from Earth orbit (expensive), or, if we only had about $100 billion dollars so that we could build a facility for SETI on the far side of the Moon (“Project Cyclops”), our considerations might be different. • Why have most SETI searches concentrated on radio wavelengths instead of optical? A single amazingly influential paper by Cocconi and Morrison (1960 Nature) set the stage. Their arguments for radio SETI are on next slide. The importance of bandwidth Basic idea: We can pack more power in a narrow frequency range (narrowband signal) than spreading out over a large range (broadband signal). Thus, we can distinguish a narrowband signal from the background more easily. Think of the everyday radio analogy again, and it should be clear! SETI@home: Each vertical “band” is a 10 kHz “slice” of the 2.5 MHz wide SERENDIP data. There are 250 such “slices.” But search is for signals much narrower than these bands. Some Historical SETI projects Ozma (1960) • In 1960, radioastronomer Frank D. Drake, then at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, carried out humanity's first attempt to detect interstellar radio transmissions. The stars chosen by Drake for the first SETI search were Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. • From April to July 1960, for six hours a day, Project Ozma's 85-foot NRAO radio telescope was tuned to the 21-centimeter emission (1420 MHz) coming from cold hydrogen gas in interstellar space. A single 100 Hz channel receiver scanned 400 kHz of bandwidth. The astronomers scanned the tapes for a repeated series of uniformly patterned pulses that would indicate an intelligent message or a series of prime numbers such as 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7. With the exception of an early false alarm caused by a secret military experiment, the only sound that came from the loudspeaker was static and no meaningful bumps superimposed themselves on the formless wiggles on the recording paper. SETI project 1974 Arecibo: message sent to M13 (1974): • Globular cluster ~25,000 lyr away • Message written by Drake, Sagan, et al. • Frequency: 2380 MHz • 1679 binary digits Ohio State University SETI Project Ohio State University SETI (1977-1997) With the Big Ear fixed radiotelescope (used Earth’s rotation to scan the sky) August 15, 1977: detected a strong narrow-band signal for 72 secs: • Duration consistent with extraterrestrial source • Strength: 30 times above background noise • Frequency: 1420 MHz (neutral H) • Bandwidth: <10 kHz • Site is now a golf course Ohio State University SETI Project The location of the signal in the constellation Sagittarius, near the Chi Sagittarii star group. RA= 19h25m31s ± 10s or 19h28m22s ± 10s declination= −26°57′ ± 20′ There were ~50 follow-up searches performed in this area, but nada => Origin of the Wow! signal is still undetermined Other SETI Projects NASA asks for SETI proposal, astronomers propose “Project Cyclops”, 1000 100-meter radio telescopes on back side of moon, costing $10 billion (1970s). NASA asked for more moderate plan, planning for next ~ 17 years. Harvard, Paul Horowitz and Project META (millions of bands in frequency), Project BETA (billion bands in frequency). Horowitz and Sagan 1993 Astrophysical Journal summarize results. One of first SETI papers in refereed journal. Harvard and Horowitz now converted to Optical SETI, largest in world. UC Berkeley’s Project SERENDIP. Since 1977! Part of data analyzed by 5 million home computers through SETI@home. Dec. 1991. NASA funds $100 million SETI effort (“MOP”). Detailed plan for combined targeted and sky survey searches. 1993: Funding removed by senate amendment Project Phoenix (SETI Institute) rises from the ashes. Piggy-backs off various radio telescopes, mainly Arecibo. 2001: Paul Allen and others proposed the Allen Telescope Array, 350 6-meter telescopes. Only 42 completed and operational by 2017. SERENDIP One of oldest operational SETI searches--since 1979, UC Berkeley. 1997--installed as piggyback at Arecibo radio observatory (picture below), largest single-dish radio telescope in world (but can only point in one direction). SERENDIP = Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligence Populations. SERENDIP IV is the fourth instrument of the project, collects data by 'piggybacking' on top of the Arecibo radio telescope. SERENDIP IV instrument is basically a 200 billion operations per second supercomputer that scans 168 million narrow (0.6 Hz) channels every 1.7 seconds for signals that are significantly 'louder' than the background static.
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