The Breakthrough Listen Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

TL;DR

The Breakthrough Listen project is a large-scale, multi-year scientific effort utilizing advanced instrumentation and machine learning to search for extraterrestrial technosignatures across vast data sets, aiming to determine if intelligent life exists beyond Earth.

Contribution

It presents the current status and future plans of the most comprehensive search for extraterrestrial intelligence, including novel analysis techniques and collaborative efforts.

Findings

Deployment of machine learning tools for technosignature detection

Analysis of multi-petabyte data sets with new techniques

Ongoing and planned observational campaigns across multiple facilities

Abstract

The discovery of the ubiquity of habitable extrasolar planets, combined with revolutionary advances in instrumentation and observational capabilities, have ushered in a renaissance in the millenia-old quest to answer our most profound question about the Universe and our place within it - Are we alone? The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, announced in July 2015 as a 10-year 100M USD program, is the most comprehensive effort in history to quantify the distribution of advanced, technologically capable life in the universe. In this white paper, we outline the status of the on-going observing campaign with our primary observing facilities, as well as planned activities with these instruments over the next few years. We also list collaborative facilities which will conduct searches for technosignatures in either primary observing mode, or commensally. We highlight some of the novel analysis techniques we are bringing to bear on multi-petabyte data sets, including machine learning tools we are deploying to search for a broader range of technosignatures than was previously possible.