On February 14th, 2020, the SETI Insitute and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory announced a new partnership, which they appropriately named the Commensal Open- Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (COSMIC SETI). For the first time in its history, the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array will participate in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
In recent weeks, the project took a big step forward with the installation of fiber optical amplifiers and splitters on all VLA antennas, which give COSMIC access to the data streams from the entire VLA. The data provided by the VLAs 27 radio antennas will allow COSMIC to conduct observations 24/7. Around 40 million stars are being examined by the Cosmic SETI for signs of intelligent life.
The Karl G. Jansky Very Large array is located in the deserts of New Mexico. Jodie Foster played Dr. Eleanor Arroway in the 1997 film Contact, where she received the first extraterrestrial communication. The VLA has never been part of a SETI effort in real life, but that is about to change.
Jack Hickish explained in a SETI Institute press release.
Having all the VLA digital signals available to the COSMIC system is a major milestone, involving close collaboration with the NRAO VLA engineering team to ensure that the addition of the COSMIC hardware doesn't adversely affect existing VLA.
It is great to have overcome the challenges of prototyping, testing, procurement, and installation, all conducted during a global pandemic and Semiconductor shortage, and we are excited to be able to move on to the next task of processing.
The VLA will conduct observations while SETI Institute scientists look for evidence of technological activity. The VLA has many important capabilities for SETI, not the least of which is its size. The collecting area of each of the 27 antennas is equivalent to a single-dish antenna of 130 m in diameter.
This surface area and large amount of metal mesh allow for almost unparalleled sensitivity levels, which is always a plus for SETI surveys, where signals are likely to be weak. Each VLA antenna has eight receivers that continuously monitor the sky at frequencies from 1 to 50 GHz. The frequencies used for television broadcasts can be found in the 1 GHz and 54 MHz range.
Engineers at the VLA have installed a splitter that feeds a copy of the data stream provided by the VLA's 27 antennas. The equipment consists of hardware and software that computes 64 different beams and sorts them into hundreds of millions of narrow-band frequencies. The SETI Institute has a scientific project.
“I am excited by the ability of COSMIC to conduct the most comprehensive technosignature search ever in the Northern Hemisphere. We will be able to monitor millions of stars with a sensitivity high enough to detect an Arecibo-like transmitter out to a distance of 25 parsecs (81 light-years), covering an observing frequency range from 230 MHz to 50 GHz, which includes many parts of the spectrum that have not yet been explored for ETI signals.”
The COSMIC SETI program will observe around 40 star systems over the course of two years. It will be the most comprehensive SETI survey done in the Northern Hemisphere. The first major observational campaign will be conducted in parallel with the ongoing VLA Sky Survey.
We look forward to partnering with the SETI Institute on this exciting initiative and are pleased to see this important milestone in the technical work that will make this new science possible.
Further reading is about SETI Institute.
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