Optical SETI: A Spectroscopic Search for Laser Emission from Nearby Stars
arXiv:astro-ph/0112479 · doi:10.1086/342496
Abstract
We have searched for nonastrophysical emission lines in the optical spectra of 577 nearby F, G, K, and M main-sequence stars. Emission lines of astrophysical origin would also have been detected, such as from a time--variable chromosphere or infalling comets. We examined ~20 spectra per star obtained during four years with the Keck/HIRES spectrometer at a resolution of 5 km/s, with a detection threshold 3% of the continuum flux level. We searched each spectrum from 4000-5000 angstroms for emission lines having widths too narrow to be natural from the host star, as well as for lines broadened by astrophysical mechanisms. We would have detected lasers that emit a power, P>60 kW, for a typical beam width of ~0.01 arcsec (diffraction-limit from a 10-m aperture) if directed toward Earth from the star. No lines consisstent with laser emission were found.
27 pages, 11 figures, uses aastex.sty
References in corpus (1)
Cited by in corpus (21)
- The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Observations of 1327 Nearby Stars over 1.10-3.45 GHz
- The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Target Selection of Nearby Stars and Galaxies
- A Search for Laser Emission with Megawatt Thresholds from 5600 FGKM Stars
- The First Very Long Baseline Interferometric SETI Experiment
- Searching for extraterrestrial intelligence signals in astronomical spectra, including existing data
- Discovery of peculiar periodic spectral modulations in a small fraction of solar type stars
- Observational Signatures of Self-Destructive Civilisations
- The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Wide-bandwidth Digital Instrumentation for the CSIRO Parkes 64-m Telescope
- Panoramic optical and near-infrared SETI instrument: overall specifications and science program
- On the Possibility of Detecting Class A Stellar Engines Using Exoplanet Transit Curves
- Searching for interstellar quantum communications
- Interstellar communication. X. The colors of optical SETI
- A Search for Optical Laser Emission from Proxima Centauri
- A Search for Monochromatic Light Toward the Galactic Centre
- Interstellar communication. XI. Short pulse duration limits of optical SETI
- Panoramic SETI: on-sky results from prototype telescopes and instrumental design
- Search for Transient, Monochromatic Light from the Galactic Plane
- The Search for Directed Intelligence
- Model of the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence with Coronagraphic Imaging
- Laser Communication with Proxima and Alpha Centauri using the Solar Gravitational Lens
- A Proposed Method for a Photon-Counting Laser Coherence Detection System to Complement Optical SETI