J/PASP/129/E4501 Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (Isaacson+, 2017)
The Breakthrough Listen search for intelligent life:
target selection of nearby stars and galaxies.
Isaacson H., Siemion A.P.V., Marcy G.W., Lebofsky M., Price D.C.,
Macmahon D., Croft S., Deboer D., Hickish J., Werthimer D., Sheikh S.,
Hellbourg G., Enriquez J.E.
<Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 129, part no 5, 4501-54501 (2017)>
=2017PASP..129e4501I 2017PASP..129e4501I (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Stars, nearby
Keywords: extraterrestrial intelligence - methods: observational
Abstract:
We present the target selection for the Breakthrough Listen search for
extraterrestrial intelligence during the first year of observations at
the Green Bank Telescope, Parkes Telescope, and Automated Planet
Finder. On the way to observing 1,000,000 nearby stars in search of
technological signals, we present three main sets of objects we plan
to observe in addition to a smaller sample of exotica. We chose the 60
nearest stars, all within 5.1pc from the Sun. Such nearby stars offer
the potential to observe faint radio signals from transmitters that
have a power similar to those on Earth. We add a list of 1649 stars
drawn from the Hipparcos catalog that span the Hertzprung-Russell
diagram, including all spectral types along the main sequence,
subgiants, and giant stars. This sample offers diversity and inclusion
of all stellar types, but with thoughtful limits and due attention to
main sequence stars. Our targets also include 123 nearby galaxies
composed of a "morphological-type-complete" sample of the nearest
spirals, ellipticals, dwarf spherioidals, and irregulars. While their
great distances hamper the detection of technological electromagnetic
radiation, galaxies offer the opportunity to observe billions of stars
simultaneously and to sample the bright end of the technological
luminosity function. We will also use the Green Bank and Parkes
telescopes to survey the plane and central bulge of the Milky Way.
Finally, the complete target list includes several classes of exotica,
including white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, black holes, neutron stars, and
asteroids in our solar system.
Description:
The stellar sample is defined by two selection criteria. The first is
a volume-limited sample of stars within 5pc of the Sun. The second is
a spectral class complete sample consisting of stars across the main
sequence and some giant branch stars, all within 50pc.
We combined the two sub-samples (5pc and 5-50pc) to produce the
final set of 1709 target stars that are listed in Table 1.
File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 68 1709 Stellar Targets
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 9 A9 --- Star Star name
11- 12 I2 h RAh Right ascension (J2000)
14- 15 I2 min RAm Right ascension (J2000)
17- 20 F4.1 s RAs Right ascension (J2000)
23 A1 --- DE- Declination sign (J2000)
24- 25 I2 deg DEd Declination (J2000)
27- 28 I2 arcmin DEm Declination (J2000)
30- 31 I2 arcsec DEs Declination (J2000)
33- 36 I4 yr Ep [2000] Epoch
38- 42 F5.2 mag Vmag V magnitude
44- 50 A7 --- SpType Spectral type
52- 56 F5.2 pc Dist Distance
58- 62 F5.2 arcsec/yr pmRA Proper motion along RA, pmRA*cosDE
64- 68 F5.2 arcsec/yr pmDE Proper motion along DE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 07-Aug-2017