Interstellar Communications
Dr. Ka Chun Yu
Curator of Space Science
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Astronomy Day, October 23, 2004
SETI Optimism
1960s: SETI research by Sagan, Drake, Morrison, many
others
Realization:
Interstellar travel long and difficult
Interstellar communication far easier: fast and cheap
Drake Equation:
Total number of civilizations broadcasting now
rate of star formation in the Galaxy
fraction of stars with planets
number of Earth-like planets in habitable zone
probability of life arising on such a planet
probability that intelligent life evolves
duration of a broadcasting civilization
SETI Optimism (cont)
Probabilities: Final probability «1 if many probabilities are
multiplied
Drake Equation parameters:
roughly 30 stars per year in Galaxy
somewhere 5–10% (?) based on exoplanet surveys
???
???
???
???
Drake Equation results:
Low end: 1 civilization (us!)
High end: 10 000 civilizations (!)
SETI Searches
1960: First search: Project Ozma using 85-foot NRAO telescope
at Green Bank; searched for a signal at 21 cm from Tau Ceti and
Epsilon Eridani.
1960s—1970s: Many small searches by US and USSR teams.
1980s: NASA involved; JPL does sky survey; NASA Ames would
target 1000 stars.
1988: Federal funding started; observations begin in 1992.
1994: Congress cuts funding.
1994—present: SETI Institute uses private funding.
1996–present Project Phoenix searches 1000 stars; in the
northern and southern hemispheres.
2005–: Allen Telescope Array: array of 350 6 meter dishes,
sensitive up to 100,000 or 1 million stars.
Unintentional Radio Transmissions
Total Power Consumption on Earth:
Consumption per person 100 Watts
11
6 000 000 000 persons
6 10 Watts
Radio “Leakage:”
8
TV and FM radio stations
10 Watts
8
Military radars
10 Watts
8
Total Leakage 10 Watts
Unintentional Radio Transmissions (cont.)
Flux Detected at Interstellar Distances:
Power Transmitted
Flux
4 Distance2
For 30 light years:
108 Watts
4 3 1019 cm 2
10 28 Watts per square meter
0 01 Jansky
26
with 1 Jansky = 1 Jy = 10 Watts per square meter.
Radio telescopes today are sensitive down to
0.0001 Jy!
The Earth is detectable out to 300 light years!
Unintentional Radio Transmissions (cont.)
How Long Is a Civilization Expected to “Leak?”
Best guess (?) values:
30 stars per year
0 10
0 50
0 50
0 10
100 years
30 0 10
0 50 0 50
0 10
100
7 5 civilizations
Unintentional Radio Transmissions (cont.)
Distance to Nearest Civilization
Diameter of Galaxy
civilization
Number of civilizations
100 000 light years
75
36 000 light years
Detected power:
Transmitted power Collector Area
4 Distance2
Arecibo Radiotelescope (300 meter antenna) can detect
10 30 Watts per squared meter, or a 108 Watt leakage signal out to
300 light years.
However a 36 kilometer radio dish necessary for
36,000 light year signal!
Intentional Radio Transmissions (cont.)
Message beamed from Arecibo to M13, 1974
21,000 light years away.
20 terawatt transmission.
100,000 stars.
Intentional Radio Transmissions (cont.)
Microwave Windows . . . the “Water Hole”
Intentional Radio Transmissions (cont.)
“Magic Frequencies:” 21 cm line of Hydrogen (1.420 GHz),
18 cm line of Hydroxyl (1.667 GHz)
Constant Value Freq. based on Freq. based on
H Line (GHz) OH Line (GHz)
1 2 0 5 0 710202876 0 833679
6 0 523598776 0 743722712 0 873027
proton/neutron 0 998623479 1 418450532 1 665063
Neutron/proton 1 001378419 1 422363665 1 669656
2 1 414213562 2 008757077 2 358000
2 1 570796327 2 231168136 2 619080
Golden mean 5 1 2 1 618033989 2 298264783 2 697842
3 1 732050808 2 460214928 2 887949
Deuterium/hydrogen 1 999007511 2 839401764 3 333061
2 2 2 840811502 3 334716
5 2 236067977 3 176123815 3 728326
Feigenbaum 2 502907875 3 555144740 4 173243
Euler’s number 2 718281828 3 861063142 4 532350
3 141592654 4 462336273 5 238160
Helium/hydrogen 3 972599637 5 642703371 6 623746
4 3 4 188790205 5 949781697 6 984213
Feigenbaum 4 669201609 6 632160818 7 785231
2 6 283185307 8 924672545 10 47632
2
7 389056099 10 49545778 12 32020
8 539734223 12 12988760 14 23879
2
9 869604401 14 01884285 16 45616
Carbon/hydrogen 11 91331331 16 92173874 19 86376
4 12 56637061 17 84934509 20 95264
15 15426224 21 52520124 25 26758
Optical SETI (OSETI)
1961: First OSETI paper by Robert Schwartz and Charles
Townes.
1960s: milliwatt lasers.
1980s–1990s: megawatt lasers.
Today, National Ignition Facility: 500 terawatt laser, 3–5
nanosecond pulse.
18
Advanced civilization with 10 Watt lasers?
Laser emits over narrow frequency; but total beamed
power might outshine parent star for a few nanoseconds!
May not need narrowband detector; use small
telescopes?!
Inscribed Messages
(Christopher Rose & Gregory Wright, 2 September 2004, Nature, vol. 431, pp. 47-49)
Radio beams spread out as they travel through space; energy
wasted
“Message probes” not diluted; greater information density
More energy-efficient than beamed transmissions for information
dense messages
19
Total Information on Earth 10 bits
18
10 bytes
1 exabyte
Use scanning tunnelling microscopy to write data by moving
individual atoms!
1022 bits per kilogram
comparable to genetic density of 1024 bits per kilogram.
Even with 100 redundancy and shielding, much more energy
efficient!
Fermi Paradox
Suppose:
An alien race takes 100 years to travel to another star.
Colonies send out expeditions after 1000 years.
Galaxy should be colonized in several 100 million
years!
If the galaxy is teeming with life, and they
are able to colonize other planets, where
are the aliens?
Is Intelligent Life Rare?
Peter Ward & Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth, 2004
Modified Drake Equation:
where
stars in the Milky Way
fraction of stars with planets
fraction of metal-rich planets
planets in a star’s habitable zone
stars in the Galactic habitable zone
fraction of habitable planets where life arises
fraction of planets with life where complex metazoans arise
fraction of lifetime of planet with complex metazoans
fraction of planets with a large moon
fraction of solar systems with Jupiter-sized planets
fraction of planets with critically low number of extinction events
