The search for life in the universe represents one of the most important scientific questions of our time. The question can be approached by searching for evidence of biological processes (biosignatures) or extraterrestrial technology (technosignatures). The mission of UCLA SETI is to find evidence of other civilizations in the universe and extract information encoded in extraterrestrial signals.
Our search will target over 100 G-type target stars but will also record emissions from thousands of additional stars in the beam. These observations will also support the UCLA SETI course. Undergraduate and graduate students in the course write observing scripts, learn to observe with the GBT remotely, and verify data quality in near real time with power spectra. Each student then determines promising candidate technosignatures from their data.
We will also use these observations to enable our citizen science collaboration,“Are we alone in the universe?” , which is a Zooniverse-based effort that launched in Feb. 2023.
Team
- Jean-Luc Margot (ude.a1768496277lcu.s1768496277spe@m1768496277lj:ot1768496277liam1768496277)
- Megan Grace Li
- Alexander Koron
- The Undergraduate and Graduate Students of the UCLA SETI Course
- The Volunteer Scientists of “Are we alone in the universe?“
Data Products
- Labeled set of Dynamic Spectra from “Are we alone in the universe?” expected in 2026.
- Reports on Promising Candidate Technosignatures coming soon.
Publications
A Search for Technosignatures Around 11,680 Stars with the Green Bank Telescope at 1.15-1.73 GHz
Margot et al. 2023
A Machine-Learning-Based Direction-of-Origin Filter for the Identification of Radio Frequency Interference in the Search for Technosignatures
Pinchuk & Margot 2022
A Search for Technosignatures Around 31 Sun-like Stars with the Green Bank Telescope at 1.15-1.73 GHz
Margot et al. 2021
A search for technosignatures from TRAPPIST-1, LHS 1140, and 10 planetary systems in the Kepler field with the Green Bank Telescope at 1.15-1.73 GHz
Pinchuk et al. 2019