Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: A Spectroscopic Search for Laser Emission from Nearby Stars

Details Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: A Spectroscopic Search for Laser Emission from Nearby Stars Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: A Spectroscopic Search for Laser Emission from Nearby Stars

Apr 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002pasp..114..416r&link_type=abstract

The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 114, Issue 794, pp. 416-426.

Biology

3

Astrobiology, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Techniques: Spectroscopic

Scientific paper

We have searched for nonastrophysical emission lines in the optical spectra of 577 nearby F, G, K, and M main-sequence stars. Emission lines of astrophysical origin would also have been detected, such as from a time-variable chromosphere or infalling comets. We examined ~20 spectra per star obtained during 4 years with the Keck/High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer at a resolution of 5 km s-1, with a detection threshold 3% of the continuum flux level. We searched each spectrum from 4000 to 5000 Å for emission lines having widths too narrow to be natural from the host star, as well as for lines broadened by astrophysical mechanisms. We would have detected lasers that emit a power P>50 kW for a typical beamwidth of ~0.01" (diffraction limit from a 10 m aperture) if directed toward Earth from the star. No lines consistent with laser emission were found. Based on observations obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the University of California and the California Institute of Technology.

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