Speaker
Description
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) kicked off in 1960, when Frank Drake turned the Tatel telescope toward nearby stars to search for 'technosignatures' that would indicate intelligent life beyond Earth. While SETI searches have been running ever since -- including several searches of archival MWA image cubes -- the low-frequency radio sky remains under-explored. In this talk, we discuss SETI opportunites for the MWA: an ideal instrument for low-frequency technosignature searches. I will discuss opportunites to use archival data (e.g. GLEAM), and how higher-resolution data from the upgraded MWAX correlator could greatly improve sensitivity to narrowband signals. I will also detail our collaboration with Breakthrough Listen, in which we are setting up a commensal system to run realtime, ultra-fine resolution (~Hz) searches of MWA beamformed data. I will report on progress on this system to date, initial results, and forecasts for future surveys.
