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Newsleiter I + THE NEWSLEITER I VOLUME IV NO. 1 1981 THE OLIVER CHALLENGE T he Monterey I nstitute for Research in Ast ronomy will soon become an important center for stellar astronorny due in large part to the determination of its staff and the generous st^pport of many individuals and companies. Thanks to donations of equipment, f oundation grants, and personal contributions, M IRA now possesses a telescope and instrumentat ion. With a use permit for Chews Ridge in the Los Padres National Forest, MIRA has access to one of the finest sites for optical astronorny in North America. But, one component of MIRA's observatory is still missing: the observatory building. ln December 1980, Dr. Bbrnard M. Oliver, recently retired Vice-President for Research and Development at Hewlett- Packard, pledged a personal challenge grant of $200,000 for the construction of M IRA's observatory building. For every dollar contributed to the building fund between now and the end of the year, Dr. oliver will donate a matching dollar. The matching of ttre Oliver Challenge by MIRA's Friends will be a maior step toward the construction of the observatory building on Chews Ridge. A native Californian educated at Stanford and the California lnstitute of Technology, Dr. oliver's interest in M IRA dates back several years. tast June, he visited Monterey to give a lecture m the 'Search for Extraterrestrial I ntelligence' to the Friends of MIRA. At that time, he visited the MIRA shop to assess the staf f 's work on the Ret icon Spect rophotqmeter and related instrumentation. ln the late summer and early fall he became interested in the efforts being made to finance the observatory building. The sincerity of his interest is ref lected in his generosity to M lRA. Preliminary plans for the observatory building, donated by architect Lawrence A. Bernstein, of Malibu, California, are of a unique structure designed to complernent the excellent observing conditions on Chews Ridge and the modern design of MIRA's telescope. The telescope has been isolated f rom heat sources which smear out incoming starlight and a roll-of f roof allows rapid access to any part of the sky. When completed, the telescope will be npunted on a pier at the building's south end while a small shop, darkroom, electronics and computer equipment, and even the observer will be housed in the northern Bernard M. Uliver has pledged MIRA a $200,000 l)r. to section of the building. one-for-one matching grant. Plans are being made to construct the building in 198fl. First light through the telescope in its new building on Chews Riclge will be an event which the Friends of MIRA and, in particular, Bernard M. Oliver will make possible. *************** PUBLISHED BY THE MONTEREY INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY, A NON.PROFIT CORPORATION 9OO MAJOR SHERMAN LANE MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA 93940 RESPONDING TO THE OLIVER CHALLENGI As a token of M IRA's appreciation, members of the Advisors Circle will receive: a gift subscription to Astronomy magazine specially arrangeci private viewing sessions at ttre M I RA telescope when it is installed on Chews Ridge an opportunity to have an astronomer come to their homes to provide an evening of grorp discussion. ln addition to the privileges listed above, Patrons and Founders will receive: an autographed copy of Carl Sagan's newest book Cosmos. Those who lrave made annual contributions of $100 or more will receive their choice of either a MIRA T-shirt or a copy of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's 1982 Observer's Handbook. The observatory building to be constructed on Chews *************** Ridge will feature a roll-off roof . The telescope will be located in the south end of the building while the northern Looking For Space part of the structure wil! house a dark room, slnp, and computer roofft. No, not interstellar space ! M IRA has se\^eral large heavy mirrors which were donated several years ago by the Warner and Swasey Company. Prior to the complet ion of the The Oliver Challenge has provided the Friends of MIRA with observatory on Chevra Ridge, the astronorn€rs are not planning an opportunity to see any contribution they make toward the to use these mirrors. Our present shop, library, and office are construction of the observatory double. For every dollar lrcused in the bottonr floor of a small building. space is pledged or received prior to the end of 1981, Dr. Oliver will Because a problem at our current location, we are asking the Friends if match it up to an atnount of $200,000. All contributions are tax any of them have about 100 square feet of storag€ space where deduct ible. these mirrors could be safely kept. Anyone who can help solve our space problems should contact either Dr. Cynthia I rvine or There are several ways for contributions to be made to the Dr. Bruce Weaver at the M IRA off ice 375-3220. 0liver Challenge: The sinplest is an immediate lump sum donation. Cifts to match the Oliver Challenge may be pledged to cover a two or three yea r period, 1 981 to 1 983, and may be paid in annual or rnonthly installments. You can double your gif t to M IRA at no cost to you if you are errployed by a company with a M atching Gif t program. Corporate matching gif ts may be used to f ulf ill giving mernbership requirements. Ask your personnel department for details today. Cifts of securities and property can offer considerable tax advantages to the donor and are welcome. There is a category of giving for everyone: Advisors Circle Founder $10,000+ Pat ron $5000 B enef actor $1 000 Friends Ci rcle Ststaining $500 Sponsor $100 The Creat Nebula in Urion owes its brightrress to nearby Cont ributor $1 to $99 trot young, stars. THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE ( SETI ) \$",. --*"Si1- $ $, The Cyclops array, proposed by Dr. Bernard tJliver and his colleagues while working on Proiect Cyclops, would consist of between 10fi) and 25fi) radio telescopes, each 10O meters in diameter. lt would be used to search for signals f r6rn extraterrestrial civilizations up to 10fi) light-years f ron Earth. Man has, at least as far back as the Roman poet Lucretius, consirJered to be good candidates as the nurturers of intelligent entertained the possibility that intelligent beings exist on other life. From the fossil records we know that it has taken at least worlds. But only recently has this prospect acquired practical three and a half billion years to evolve a technological lifespan of signif icance. With the growth of radio astronomy over the past civilization here on earth. We also know that the three decades, man has developed the capability to stars more massive and more luminous that the sun is relatively communicate with any interested technological civilization that short. A star iust 50 percent more massive than the sun will be might exist around a star in our neighborhood of the Calaxy. a stable source of life-giving radiation for only two billion years. Thus, the lives of stars iust a little more massive than Between -19b0 and the present, a numhr of limited searches the sun are probably too brief to permit the rise of civilization. for extraterrestrial messages have been conducted tsing a more rnassive stars are variety of raclio telescopes. lt is hardly necessary to note that There is adciitional evidence that the our these attempts have proved f ruitless. These programs were not promising targets in the search for life. ln the case of predicated on sotrte or all of the following assunptions: solar system, almost all of the angular momentum, which can be considered as energy of rotation, is to be found in the revolution that -1. There is a signif icant probability that relatively of the planets around the sun. l'he sun itself, a star near the sun there exists a technological civilization rotates rather slowly, possesses little of it. But observations at least as advanced as our oWll. show that many of the more massive sta rs are rapid rotators. This suggests that these stars still possess tlre angular 2. Such a civilization is deliberately broadcasting a rnomentum of the prestellar gas cloud form which tney evolved. message announcing its existence to other like Families of planets that might have inlrerited much of the civiliz at iors . angular monentum may never have been formed. J. That message is being broadcast at one of a few I he two obstacles to massive stars' supporting intelligent lif e not stars less massive than tlre sun. T'hese bodies specific narrow f requency bands (i.e., channels). do apply to -l-heir are botn slowly rotating and long lived. principal 4. Certain types of stars are more likely than others deficiency is basically attributable to their low (bV stellar to spawn planets which will give rise to an standards) energy output. ln the necessarily parochial view of intelligent species. man, the habitatlle zone around a star is that region in which a planet's orbit can lie where water would be in a liquid state at least part of the tinre. As we look at successively less massive four points is obviorsly of special interest and less luminous stars, the habitable zone shrinks and moves Ihe last of these'lhere are several lines of argument that closer to the f eeble stella r f lame. For sta rs with rnasses less to astronom€m. 'J/4 astronomers have used to drastically limit the numhr of stars than tlre mass of the sun the habitable zone is suf f iciently Uf the assumptions stated above, the third and f ourth are being eliminated and refined by technical advances and the near the parent star that tidal interactions have the effect of growth of astronomical knowlecige.
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