Chapter 10
Involvement of the Sardinia Radio
Telescope in the Breakthrough Listen
Initiatives
Andrea Melis, Delphine Perrodin, Nicolò Antonietti, Marta Burgay,
Raimondo Concu, Claudio Maccone, Emilio Molinari, Stelio Montebugnoli,
Alessandro Navarrini, Pierpaolo Pari, Maura Pilia, and Andrea Possenti
Abstract The Breakthrough Listen (BL) Program is the most comprehensive search
for extraterrestrial life ever done. One hundred million dollars have been invested,
leading to thousands of hours of dedicated telescope time at two of the major radio
astronomical facilities in the world, the Green Bank Telescope and the Parkes Telescope. In this paper, we outline how the Sardinia Radio Telescope is becoming
involved in the BL initiatives. We present how we are planning to conduct observations for SETI as well as for pulsar and fast radio burst searches.
10.1 Introduction
The Sardinia Radio Telescope
1 (SRT, see Fig. 10.1) [1, 2] is a radio astronomical
facility that is now fully operational. The wide variety of scientific studies that can
be conducted at the telescope, both in single-dish mode and simultaneously with
other facilities, in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) mode, make it quite
attractive and include: imaging, spectroscopy, polarimetry, pulsars, fast radio bursts
(FRB) searches, space debris tracking, space weather activities and so on.
The search for life in the Universe, and in particular in the Milky Way, has now
become, to all effects, decisive and timely. The overwhelming majority of radio
astronomical facilities in the world are now involved in answering the question:
“Are we alone?”, among them single-dish antennas as well as one of the main SKA
1 http://www.srt.inaf.it/.
A. Melis (B) · D. Perrodin · M. Burgay · R. Concu · C. Maccone · E. Molinari · A. Navarrini ·
M. Pilia · A. Possenti
INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, Via della Scienza 5, 09047 Selargius, Italy
e-mail: andrea.melis@inaf.it
URL: http://www.oa-cagliari.inaf.it/
N. Antonietti · S. Montebugnoli · P. Pari
INAF Istituto di Radio Astronomia, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Montebugnoli and A. Melis (eds.), The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence,
Springer Proceedings in Physics 260, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63806-1_10
99
Involvement of the Sardinia Radio
Telescope in the Breakthrough Listen
Initiatives
Andrea Melis, Delphine Perrodin, Nicolò Antonietti, Marta Burgay,
Raimondo Concu, Claudio Maccone, Emilio Molinari, Stelio Montebugnoli,
Alessandro Navarrini, Pierpaolo Pari, Maura Pilia, and Andrea Possenti
Abstract The Breakthrough Listen (BL) Program is the most comprehensive search
for extraterrestrial life ever done. One hundred million dollars have been invested,
leading to thousands of hours of dedicated telescope time at two of the major radio
astronomical facilities in the world, the Green Bank Telescope and the Parkes Telescope. In this paper, we outline how the Sardinia Radio Telescope is becoming
involved in the BL initiatives. We present how we are planning to conduct observations for SETI as well as for pulsar and fast radio burst searches.
10.1 Introduction
The Sardinia Radio Telescope
1 (SRT, see Fig. 10.1) [1, 2] is a radio astronomical
facility that is now fully operational. The wide variety of scientific studies that can
be conducted at the telescope, both in single-dish mode and simultaneously with
other facilities, in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) mode, make it quite
attractive and include: imaging, spectroscopy, polarimetry, pulsars, fast radio bursts
(FRB) searches, space debris tracking, space weather activities and so on.
The search for life in the Universe, and in particular in the Milky Way, has now
become, to all effects, decisive and timely. The overwhelming majority of radio
astronomical facilities in the world are now involved in answering the question:
“Are we alone?”, among them single-dish antennas as well as one of the main SKA
1 http://www.srt.inaf.it/.
A. Melis (B) · D. Perrodin · M. Burgay · R. Concu · C. Maccone · E. Molinari · A. Navarrini ·
M. Pilia · A. Possenti
INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, Via della Scienza 5, 09047 Selargius, Italy
e-mail: andrea.melis@inaf.it
URL: http://www.oa-cagliari.inaf.it/
N. Antonietti · S. Montebugnoli · P. Pari
INAF Istituto di Radio Astronomia, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Montebugnoli and A. Melis (eds.), The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence,
Springer Proceedings in Physics 260, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63806-1_10
99