Tag Archive for 'Breakthrough Initiatives'

CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia. Image credit: Shaun Amy.

Novel SETI Technique Filters Out Earth Interference to Focus on Alien Technosignatures

Jul 18, 2023 by News Staff

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) aims to answer one of the most important scientific questions: are we alone in the Universe? Complementing...

An artist’s impression of the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope receiving signals from space. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar / Breakthrough Listen.

Artificial Intelligence Detects New Technosignature Signals of Interest

Jan 31, 2023 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, astronomers with Breakthrough Listen Initiative — the largest ever scientific research...

Campbell et al. show that the diameter and radius of curvature of a circular light sail should be comparable in magnitude, both on the order of a few meters, in optimal designs for gram-scale payloads. Image credit: Campbell et al., doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03272.

Laser-Driven Light Sails Will Need to Billow Like Parachute: Study

Feb 17, 2022 by News Staff

As part of the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, University of Pennsylvania researcher Igor Bargatin and his colleagues are designing the size, shape and...

Our ability to explore the cosmos by direct contact has been limited to a small number of lunar and interplanetary missions. However, NASA’s Starlight program points a path forward to send small, relativistic spacecraft far outside our Solar System via standoff directed-energy propulsion. These miniaturized spacecraft are capable of robotic exploration but can also transport seeds and organisms, marking a profound change in our ability to both characterize and expand the reach of known life. Lantin et al. explore the biological and technological challenges of interstellar space biology, focusing on radiation-tolerant microorganisms capable of cryptobiosis. Image credit: University of California, Santa Barbara.

We Must Consider Benefits of Sending Life Outside of Solar System, Researchers Say

Jan 8, 2022 by News Staff

University of California, Santa Barbara’s professors Philip Lubin and Joel Rothman and their colleagues contemplate launching small cryptobiotic lifeforms...

This image shows the closest stellar system to the Sun, the bright double star Alpha Centauri AB and its distant and faint companion Proxima Centauri. Image credit: ESO / B. Tafreshi, twanight.org / Digitized Sky Survey 2 / Davide De Martin / Mahdi Zamani.

TOLIMAN Space Telescope Will Look for Potentially Habitable Exoplanets in Alpha Centauri System

Nov 17, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers from the University of Sydney, the Breakthrough Initiative, Saber Aeronautics and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced this week the...

An artist’s impression of the Proxima Centauri system. Image credit: Lorenzo Santinelli.

Signal of Interest from Proxima Centauri Was Not Alien Technosignature, Astronomers Say

Oct 26, 2021 by Natali Anderson

In 2019, astronomers with the Breakthrough Listen project observed Proxima Centauri using CSIRO’s Parkes ‘Murriyang’ radio telescope. They detected...

This artist’s conception shows a hypothetical rocky exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri system. Image credit: Michael S. Helfenbein.

Astronomers Directly Image Habitable-Zone Planet around Alpha Centauri A

Feb 11, 2021 by News Staff

Using a newly developed system for mid-infrared exoplanet imaging, astronomers from the Breakthrough Watch Initiative say they can now use ground-based...

An optical color image of the stellar field centered on HIP 109427, an A1-type star located 89 light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus, from the Pan-STARRS survey, showing the target fields of Green Bank and Parkes receivers, circled in red and white respectively; 46 sources with geometric distances calculated from Gaia data are marked with green crosses. Image credit: Wlodarczyk-Sroka et al, arXiv: 2006.09756.

New Study Expands Breakthrough Listen Initiative’s Search for Intelligent Life

Sep 3, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a research team led by University of Manchester astronomers extended...

An artist’s impression of a four-planet system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Breakthrough Listen Scans Kepler-160 System for Alien Technosignatures

Jun 25, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of alien civilizations, has conducted a search...

Breakthrough Listen Finds No Alien Signals from Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Feb 20, 2020 by News Staff

Breakthrough Listen, the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth, has released data from its...

Breakthrough Listen Scientists Release New Data from SETI Survey of Milky Way

Feb 18, 2020 by News Staff

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of alien civilizations, has released data from...

Astronomers to Search for Alien Signals from TESS Exoplanets

Nov 7, 2019 by News Staff

Extrasolar planets discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will be scanned for ‘technosignatures’ — indicators of...

VERITAS is located at the basecamp of the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona. Image credit: K. Gibbs & N. Galente, Whipple Observatory.

VERITAS to Search for Nanosecond Laser Beams from Extraterrestrial Civilizations

Aug 12, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers from the Breakthrough Listen, a scientific program in search for signs of intelligent life in the Universe, and the VERITAS (Very Energetic...

Zhang et al used artificial intelligence to search through radio signals recorded from FRB 121102. Image credit: Breakthrough Listen Initiative.

AI Helps Astronomers Detect New Pulses from Mysterious Repeating Radio Source

Sep 14, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers at Breakthrough Listen, a scientific program in search for signs of intelligent life in the Universe, have applied machine-learning techniques...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Breakthrough Listen Initiative to Observe First Interstellar Asteroid

Dec 12, 2017 by News Staff

The Breakthrough Listen initiative — the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of alien civilizations — announced...

The Weird! Signal. Instead of emanating from Ross 128, the most likely source of the signal is a satellite orbiting the Earth. Image credit: Planetary Habitability Laboratory, University of Puerto Rico.

‘Weird!’ Signal from Ross 128 isn’t from Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Astronomers Say

Jul 23, 2017 by News Staff

Professor Abel Méndez, Director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory and a planetary astrobiologist at the University of Puerto Rico, and colleagues...

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, the United States. Image credit: Jiuguang Wang / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: First Results

Apr 21, 2017 by Natali Anderson

Breakthrough Listen — the largest ever research program aimed at finding evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth — has released its eleven...

ESO Joins Breakthrough Initiatives to Search for New Exoplanets in Alpha Centauri System

Jan 10, 2017 by News Staff

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt ESO’s Very Large Telescope instrumentation...

Breakthrough Listen: Parkes Radio Telescope Turns to Proxima b

Nov 8, 2016 by News Staff

Breakthrough Listen, the largest ever research program aimed at finding evidence of advanced civilizations beyond Earth, today announced its first observations...