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| Paper: |
Astropulse and Fly’s Eye: SETI Searches for Transient Radio Signals Using Distributed Computing |
| Volume: |
420, Bioastronomy 2007: Molecules, Microbes and Extraterrestrial Life |
| Page: |
447 |
| Authors: |
Von Korff, J.; Siemion, A.; Korpela, E.; Werthimer, D.; McMahon, P.; Cobb, J.; Lebofsky, M.; Anderson, D.; Bankay, B.; Bower, G.; Foster, G.; van Leeuwen, J.; Mallard, W.; Wagner, M. |
| Abstract: |
Berkeley conducts 7 SETI programs at IR, visible and radio wavelengths. Here we review two of the newest efforts, Astropulse and Fly’s Eye.
A variety of possible sources of microsecond to millisecond radio pulses have been suggested in the last several decades, among them such exotic events as evaporating primordial black holes, hyper-flares from neutron stars, emissions from cosmic strings or perhaps extraterrestrial civilizations, but to-date few searches have been conducted capable of detecting them.
We are carrying out two searches in hopes of finding and characterizing these μs to ms time scale dispersed radio pulses. These two observing programs are orthogonal in search space; the Allen Telescope Array’s (ATA) “Fly’s Eye” experiment observes a 100 square degree field by pointing each 6m ATA antenna in a different direction; by contrast, the Astropulse sky survey at Arecibo is extremely sensitive but has 1/3,000 of the instantaneous sky coverage. Astropulse’s multibeam data is transferred via the internet to the computers of millions of volunteers.
The Fly’s Eye was successfully installed at the ATA in December of 2007, and to-date approximately 450 hours of observation has been performed. We have detected three pulsars (B0329+54, B0355+54, B0950+08) and six giant pulses from the Crab pulsar in our diagnostic pointing data. We have not yet detected any other convincing bursts of astronomical origin in our survey data. |
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