Campus News
Search for extraterrestrial intelligence expands at Lick Observatory
Astronomers are expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence into a new realm with detectors tuned to infrared light.
LH7353_Nickel-NIROSETI_First Light Night © 2015 Laurie Hatch / image and text – LICK OBSERVATORY – Mt. Hamilton California – 2015 March 15 The NIROSTI (Near Infrared Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) instrument saw first light on the Nickel 1-meter Telescope shortly before this photograph was taken. The Nickel is housed inside the Main Building's near foreground dome. NIROSETI team members are counting their 'lucky stars' that clouds did not prevent star light from reaching the instrument. Enjoying a celebratory walk under the night sky, astronomer Shelley Wright pauses in view of the camera. Wright's image is ghosted because she was stationary for only a brief moment during the camera's longer time exposure. Inside the dome, Jérome Maire, Patrick Dorval, and Remington Stone continue to test the instrument, albeit through changing clouds. Other team members include Frank Drake, Geoffrey Marcy, Andrew Siemion, Richard Treffers, and Dan Werthimer. The NIROSETI instrument is designed to detect as-yet-undiscovered nanosecond laser pulses from beyond our solar system. This innovative device is the only one of its kind in the world, the first capable of detecting such brief bursts at near infrared wavelengths. Saffron colored low pressure sodium street lamps in nearby San José tint the clouds a soft orange-pink. The Anna B. Nickel 40-inch Reflector is named for the San Francisco seamstress whose generous and unexpected bequest provided funding to design and build this telescope. Constructed in-house in the late 1970’s, the Nickel presently occupies the first dome to be completed on Mt. Hamilton, at the north end of the Main Building. The dome originally housed a 12” Alvan Clark Refractor which was placed in service in 1881. Careful dome modifications accommodate the Nickel’s larger aperture. What would Anna think if her telescope was the first to discover ET? – A VIEW FROM LICK OBSERVATORY – Lick Observatory crowns the 4,200-foot Mt. Ha
Astronomers are expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence into a new realm with detectors tuned to infrared light at UC’s Lick Observatory. A new instrument, called NIROSETI, will soon scour the sky for messages from other worlds.
“Infrared light would be an excellent means of interstellar communication,” said Shelley Wright, an assistant professor of physics at UC San Diego who led the development of the new instrument while at the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Wright worked on an earlier SETI project at Lick Observatory as a UC Santa Cruz undergraduate, when she built an optical instrument designed by UC Berkeley researchers. The infrared project takes advantage of new technology not available for that first optical search.
Infrared light would be a good way for extraterrestrials to get our attention here on Earth, since pulses from a powerful infrared laser could outshine a star, if only for a billionth of a second. Interstellar gas and dust is almost transparent to near infrared, so these signals can be seen from great distances. It also takes less energy to send information using infrared signals than with visible light.
Frank Drake, professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz and director emeritus of the SETI Institute, said there are several additional advantages to a search in the infrared realm.
“The signals are so strong that we only need a small telescope to receive them. Smaller telescopes can offer more observational time, and that is good because we need to search many stars for a chance of success,” said Drake.
The only downside is that extraterrestrials would need to be transmitting their signals in our direction, Drake said, though he sees this as a positive side to that limitation. “If we get a signal from someone who’s aiming for us, it could mean there’s altruism in the universe. I like that idea. If they want to be friendly, that’s who we will find.”
Scientists have searched the skies for radio signals for more than 50 years and expanded their search into the optical realm more than a decade ago. The idea of searching in the infrared is not a new one, but instruments capable of capturing pulses of infrared light only recently became available.
“We had to wait,” Wright said. “I spent eight years waiting and watching as new technology emerged.”
Now that technology has caught up, the search will extend to stars thousands of light years away, rather than just hundreds. NIROSETI, or Near-Infrared Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, could also uncover new information about the physical universe.
“This is the first time Earthlings have looked at the universe at infrared wavelengths with nanosecond time scales,” said Dan Werthimer, UC Berkeley SETI Project Director. “The instrument could discover new astrophysical phenomena, or perhaps answer the question of whether we are alone.”
NIROSETI will also gather more information than previous optical detectors by recording levels of light over time so that patterns can be analyzed for potential signs of other civilizations.
“Searching for intelligent life in the universe is both thrilling and somewhat unorthodox,” said Claire Max, director of UC Observatories and professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. “Lick Observatory has already been the site of several previous SETI searches, so this is a very exciting addition to the current research taking place.”
NIROSETI will be fully operational by early summer and will scan the skies several times a week on the Nickel 1-meter telescope at Lick Observatory, located on Mt. Hamilton east of San Jose.
The NIROSETI team also includes Geoffrey Marcy and Andrew Siemion from UC Berkeley; Patrick Dorval, a Dunlap undergraduate, and Elliot Meyer, a Dunlap graduate student; and Richard Treffers of Starman Systems. Funding for the project comes from the generous support of Bill and Susan Bloomfield.