Sir Ulli
04-04-04, 04:28 PM
Summary: What had become the first systematic attempt to search for another world's intelligent radio communications has wound down. Project Phoenix will transition to more advanced search methods, but its pioneering status has become part of history.
http://www.seti.org/image/voices_wel_backus.jpg (http://www.seti.org/about_us/voices/peter_backus.html)
by Peter Backus, SETI Observing Programs Manager, SETI Institute, click at Image for more Information at Peter Backhus
Prohect Phoenix (http://www.seti.org/seti/our_projects/project_phoenix/Welcome.html) has left the building. There are empty spaces at Arecibo Observatory, but not for long. A new computer cluster is destined for the space occupied by fifteen Programmable Detection Modules. The cabinets that stored the spare components for the Phoenix search system are already reassigned to the RFI Monitoring and Electronics groups.
For the staff at Arecibo, another SETI project has ended, and life at the observatory goes on. But for us, life is in transition as we wrap up one project and begin another. As we wait in California for our equipment to arrive from Puerto Rico, it is a good time to look back on Project Phoenix. It wasn't "just another" SETI project.
...
A few searches have used large telescopes, but they typically scan the sky and are limited to a single frequency band. Most of the time, these searches do not observe stars in our galaxy, but are actually looking at stars millions of light years away. In the fraction of time they observe stars in the Milky Way, they only spend 10 to 20 seconds per star. Phoenix only observed nearby stars in our galaxy and so could devote from 100 to 550 seconds per star per frequency band.
http://www.astrobio.net/articles/images/skymap_small.jpg (http://www.astrobio.net/articles/images/skymap.jpg)
Stellar Countdown locations. Skymap of Arecibo reobservations. Click image for larger view. SETI@home uses the idle time of over four million personal computers to sift through radio data for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. The three main signal types of interest are:
Gaussians are the power curves produced when the Arecibo beam scans a steady celestial radio source. The signal is weak at first, strong when it is at the center of the beam, and then fades again. This produces a bell shaped power curve known as a gaussian.
Pulses represent any celestial radio signal of a fixed frequency that is distinguishable above the background noise.
Triplets are a sets of 3 equally spaced spikes. Whereas gaussians represent a constant signal from space, triplets may represent a series of pulses transmitted at fixed time intervals.
Credit: SETI@home
Ashes of the Phoenix (http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=908) by Astrology Magazine
...
t was a major advance over all other SETI programs, but its superlatives will not last. New, more powerful searches will be made in the coming decades that will make the sensitivity, number of stars and frequency coverage of Phoenix seem small in comparison.
But, it will always be our first big step in exploring our part of the Milky Way.
Sir Ulli
http://www.seti.org/image/voices_wel_backus.jpg (http://www.seti.org/about_us/voices/peter_backus.html)
by Peter Backus, SETI Observing Programs Manager, SETI Institute, click at Image for more Information at Peter Backhus
Prohect Phoenix (http://www.seti.org/seti/our_projects/project_phoenix/Welcome.html) has left the building. There are empty spaces at Arecibo Observatory, but not for long. A new computer cluster is destined for the space occupied by fifteen Programmable Detection Modules. The cabinets that stored the spare components for the Phoenix search system are already reassigned to the RFI Monitoring and Electronics groups.
For the staff at Arecibo, another SETI project has ended, and life at the observatory goes on. But for us, life is in transition as we wrap up one project and begin another. As we wait in California for our equipment to arrive from Puerto Rico, it is a good time to look back on Project Phoenix. It wasn't "just another" SETI project.
...
A few searches have used large telescopes, but they typically scan the sky and are limited to a single frequency band. Most of the time, these searches do not observe stars in our galaxy, but are actually looking at stars millions of light years away. In the fraction of time they observe stars in the Milky Way, they only spend 10 to 20 seconds per star. Phoenix only observed nearby stars in our galaxy and so could devote from 100 to 550 seconds per star per frequency band.
http://www.astrobio.net/articles/images/skymap_small.jpg (http://www.astrobio.net/articles/images/skymap.jpg)
Stellar Countdown locations. Skymap of Arecibo reobservations. Click image for larger view. SETI@home uses the idle time of over four million personal computers to sift through radio data for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. The three main signal types of interest are:
Gaussians are the power curves produced when the Arecibo beam scans a steady celestial radio source. The signal is weak at first, strong when it is at the center of the beam, and then fades again. This produces a bell shaped power curve known as a gaussian.
Pulses represent any celestial radio signal of a fixed frequency that is distinguishable above the background noise.
Triplets are a sets of 3 equally spaced spikes. Whereas gaussians represent a constant signal from space, triplets may represent a series of pulses transmitted at fixed time intervals.
Credit: SETI@home
Ashes of the Phoenix (http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=908) by Astrology Magazine
...
t was a major advance over all other SETI programs, but its superlatives will not last. New, more powerful searches will be made in the coming decades that will make the sensitivity, number of stars and frequency coverage of Phoenix seem small in comparison.
But, it will always be our first big step in exploring our part of the Milky Way.
Sir Ulli