The SERENDIP Project
SERENDIP
The UC Berkeley Search For Extraterrestrial Civilizations

The UC Berkeley SETI Program, SERENDIP (Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations) is an ongoing scientific research effort aimed at detecting radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. The project is the world's only "piggyback" SETI system, operating alongside simultaneously conducted conventional radio astronomy observations. SERENDIP is currently piggybacking on the 1,000-foot dish at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the largest radio telescope in the world.

SERENDIP is dedicated to providing an answer to the age-old question "Are we alone?"


Last updated 1/7/99

Contents:

About The SERENDIP IV Project

Plans and Current Status

How you can help: Join the Friends of SERENDIP!

Please visit us again!

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What is SERENDIP IV?

SERENDIP IV, the latest SERENDIP instrument, consists of 40 spectrum analyzer boards working in parallel to look at 168 million narrow (0.6Hz) channels every 1.7 seconds. It is essentially a 200 billion-instructions-per-second supercomputer. We installed SERENDIP IV at the Arecibo Observatory on June 11, 1997, and have been since receiving raw data from the observatory at the rate of one megabyte every four minutes.

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History of SERENDIP

[HatHat Creek Observatory where SERENDIP saw first light

SERENDIP has been in operation for 19 years, beginning with SERENDIP I in 1979. The SERENDIP I instrument consisted of a 100-channel spectrum analyzer which was located at UC Berkeley's Hat Creek Observatory.

Since that time, SERENDIP has undergone a series of sequential improvements. SERENDIP II, which ran from 1986 to 1988, was thousands of times more powerful than its predecessor. The second-generation instrument was able to observe 65,000 channels per second and was primarily located at the 300-foot NRAO radio telescope at Green Bank and to a lesser extent on four other high-quality telescopes around the world.

SERENDIP III began operations at Arecibo in April 15, 1992. The end of its 4 year survey coincided with the beginning of a major upgrade at Arecibo. The upgrade is now complete, and SERENDIP IV was installed at Arecibo in June 1997.

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Description of SERENDIP

[AreciboArecibo Observatory plays host to the SERENDIP instrument

From 1992 to 1996 we had the spectrum analyzer, SERENDIP III, gathering data at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. This is the world's largest telescope and is equipped with state-of-the-art radio receivers. Our piggybacking approach has allowed us to observe essentially full time. With the SERENDIP III instrument, we examined 4.2 million channels every 1.7 seconds in a 12 MHz-wide band centered at 429 MHz. This is only a small piece of the electromagnetic spectrum, but it is by far the largest segment ever examined so comprehensively. SERENDIP IV examines 168 million channels every 1.7 seconds in a 100 MHz band centered at 1.42 GHz. The SERENDIP instrument stores signals that peak significantly above the background noise.

The data gathered by the instrument are transferred across the Internet to the SERENDIP lab at Berkeley. There we run the data through a series of algorithms designed to reject radio frequency interference and detect signals that have some possibility of being both artificial and extraterrestrial.

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Rationale for radio SETI

Radio is believed by most scientists to be the best and perhaps only chance we have at interstellar communication, considering the distances involved. Radio waves, like all electromagnetic radiation, travel at the speed of light, 300,000 kilometers per second. This is the fastest velocity possible, and yet even Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our own sun, is far enough away that light takes approximately four years to make the journey. Almost all stars are much further away.

In contrast to the speed of light, the fastest space vehicle we have with current technology travels about 25,000 miles per hour, or about 11 kilometers per second. At such speeds, it would take a rocket 300,000 years to reach our nearest neighbor.

Radio waves are thought to be the the optimum band of the electromagnetic spectrum for interstellar communication because radio wavelengths are relatively free of the absorption and noise that plagues other areas of the spectrum. Radio, visible light, and the near infrared are the only electromagnetic frequencies able to penetrate the earth's atmosphere, and of the three, radio is not as easily absorbed by interstellar gas and dust. In addition, stars are generally quiet (or dim) in the radio wavelengths. This makes radio a natural candidate for a deliberate beacon by an advanced civilization, or for interstellar communications between civilizations.

Besides deliberate interstellar transmissions, other civilizations may well radiate radio "leakage," or unintentional transmissions beyond their own planets. Nearly all of the artificial electromagnetic radiation emitted from the earth is in the radio spectrum. Technological civilizations within about a 50 light-year radius of the solar system could now be watching first-run broadcasts of "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners." By the same token, SERENDIP researchers may one day serendipitously pick up the Tau Ceti equivalent of terrestrial TV shows.

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Major Sponsors of the SERENDIP Project

The Friends of SERENDIP

The SETI Institute

The Planetary SocietyThe Planetary Society

Toshiba

Sun Microsystems

Xilinx

Intel

Equipment contributions have also been made by AWA, Austek, Harris Semiconductors and Microtec Research.

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SERENDIP and other searches

SERENDIP IV Instruments are used the Australian SETI group at the Parkes Telescope, and also by the Italian Seti group at Medicina Observatory. Ohio State University is using a 4 million-channel version of SERENDIP IV for SETI research at OSU radio observatory. Project Phoenix, of the SETI Institute, used the SERENDIP II instrument for radio frequency interference studies.

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Recent SERENDIP News

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Current results

The 4 year SERENDIP III sky survey at Arecibo Observatory has recently been completed, logging a total of 10,000 hours of observation time. The project has observed 93 percent of the sky visible from Arecibo at least once, and has searched 43 percent of the Arecibo sky at least 5 times. Along the way, SERENDIP has probed more than 100 trillion radio channels at very high sensitivity.

Final SERENDIP III data analysis is currently under way. So far, no signal has been so amazing that it has sent us rushing to Arecibo seeking dedicated telescope time for reobservation, but the entire run of data is getting a fresh look. When all of the data are considered together, some candidates, such as those in which strong signals recur several times, become more interesting. We then run these candidates through additional algorithms, such as one to determine if there is a likely star in the vicinity of the signal. If the same point in the sky shows up on several different algorithms, it of course becomes much more interesting.

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What's next?

SERENDIP IV has been installed at the Arecibo Observatory for over a year now. It has greatly enhanced the SERENDIP search by collecting 168 million channels worth of data every 1.7 seconds. SERENDIP IV, like SERENDIP III, is piggybacking on the Arecibo telescope. Dedicated telescope time will be used to look back at the most interesting candidates from this and previous searches.

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Program Funding

We are extremely pleased to announce three major donations that have arrived at this very crucial time. The SETI Institute has provided a very substantial grant which will cover the majority of the expenses of the SERENDIP IV sky survey. The Planetary Society has provided additional funding which was used to finish up the SERENDIP IV system, install it at the Arecibo telescope and will help with operating costs. Sun Microsystems has donated two of their fastest workstations to process the huge data set that SERENDIP IV will produce. We have also received a number of donations from private individuals which have helped with our ongoing expenses.

Friends of the Search...
... we need your help!

Thanks to our innovative piggybacking approach and the outstanding capabilities of the SERENDIP instruments, SERENDIP has been able to obtain substantial amounts of prime telescope time and ranks among the leaders in world-wide SETI efforts. In the course of our 19 year program, we have built a number of instruments. Sponsorship by the Plantetary Society and the SETI Institute made possible the installation of our latest instrument at Arecibo and will cover much of the operating expenses. However, in order to ensure its continuing success, the project still needs donors. A group of individuals has formed "The Friends of SERENDIP" to coordinate funding efforts. This group is headed by science and fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, and founding members include SETI noteworthies such as Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, as well as Nobel Laureate Glenn Seaborg. All contributions to The Friends of SERENDIP are administered by UC Berkeley.

For more information about The Friends of SERENDIP, contact sereninfo@ssl.berkeley.edu.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to SERENDIP, please see our donor form.


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