The University of Oxford will become the new international headquarters for Breakthrough Listen, the largest-ever programme involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The partnership will position the UK as a leader in this burgeoning field and help Listen extend the scope of its research. The university’s Department of Physics will also see substantial resources allocated to technology and software development.
Listen is one of Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives. The billionaire’s Breakthrough Foundation provides funding for the Breakthrough Initiatives and other philanthropic projects. These projects include the Breakthrough Prize and Tech For Refugees.
Listen And the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Milner and Stephen Hawking announced the launch of Breakthrough Listen in 2015 at The Royal Society in London. The astronomical programme has since reinvigorated SETI, turning it into a rigorous scientific field.
Listen works with some of the largest and most sensitive radio telescopes in the world to detect signals that could originate from alien civilisations. With this global telescope network, Listen has surveyed dozens of nearby galaxies, thousands of nearby stars, and the entire galactic plane of the Milky Way.
The Listen team has also developed groundbreaking computer and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. These systems digitise billions of radio channels across a range of the radio spectrum simultaneously. Listen analyses this data for candidate signals. These are radio signals with characteristics or patterns that could mean they have an extraterrestrial, technological source.
Since its inception, Listen has published more than 70 papers, including an unprecedented “Exotica” list, which catalogues astronomically significant objects. These papers have also included the meticulous analysis of signals of interest and the discovery of new astronomical objects. One such discovery is a rare repeating emitter that has produced 72 Fast Radio Bursts.
Oxford University’s Department of Physics and the SKA
Previously, the University of California, Berkeley, served as Listen’s headquarters. However, Oxford University’s Department of Physics will allow Listen to make the most of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
The SKA is a vast array of radio dishes and antennas in Australia and South Africa. Expected to be operational around 2030, the SKA will become the world’s leading radio astronomy facility. The array will be capable of surveying the sky with 50 times the sensitivity of other radio-telescope arrays, 10,000 times faster.
The University of Oxford’s Department of Physics has taken a prominent role in developing hardware and software for the SKA. As a result, they will be able to customise specific instrumentation for SETI.
Oxford physicists have also spearheaded the development of the MeerKAT array in South Africa. A precursor to the SKA, MeerKAT is the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest radio telescope. The Listen team recently started working with new data the 64-antenna array has recorded of a million nearby stars.
Listen will also study data from the Vera Rubin Observatory in Northern Chile. Oxford’s Department of Physics co-developed a 3,200-megapixel camera with the observatory’s team. This camera can capture images of the entire visible sky from Cerro Pachon, Chile, every three to four nights. These images should help us discover approximately 20 billion new galaxies and as many stars.
Astrophysical Transients and Anomalies
Like many SETI projects, Listen searches for radio signals that could be proof of alien technology. However, Listen’s researchers are careful not to rule anything out, so the programme encompasses a range of technosignatures.
For example, Listen looks for anomalous astrophysical transients, which are bursts of light or energy with no obvious explanation. These transients could originate from an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation.
The new partnership between Oxford University and Listen involves the detection of astrophysical transients and anomalies in optical transient surveys. This will include the upcoming 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) by the Rubin Observatory. This unprecedented survey of the Southern Hemisphere sky starts in 2024.
Listen also looks for potential “megastructures” in transits. Instruments like NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) detect these huge non-natural objects.
A good example of this kind of megastructure discovery involves Tabby’s, or Boyajian’s, Star. In 2015, scientists discovered that unknown objects were passing in front of the star, causing irregular, deep dimming events.
The objects turned out to be vast dust clouds and not the products of alien engineering. However, genuine megastructures orbiting a star would create similar transit events.
In addition, Oxford physicists will assist Listen in the search for life on our nearest exoplanets (planets outside the Solar System).
“This is an extraordinarily exciting partnership, bringing a large-scale SETI programme to the UK,” said Professor Rob Fender, head of Astrophysics at Oxford.
“This move recognises how the University of Oxford’s existing astrophysics programmes in radio astronomy instrumentation, astrophysical transients, and exoplanetary studies make it the perfect base for Breakthrough Listen.”
Listen Drives Big Data Processing Capabilities
To identify technosignatures, Listen will need to search through huge quantities of incoming astronomical signals. The programme uses AI and machine learning to process enormous datasets. In January 2023, Listen announced that a new AI-powered method had identified eight new potential technosignatures.
Listen will continue developing new machine-learning algorithms to scan data faster and in greater detail than ever before. By creating these AI tools for Breakthrough Listen, the programme could trigger a major leap in big data capabilities, with applications for many industries.
Professor Ian Shipsey is the head of Physics at Oxford University and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He said: “Oxford has become a global leader in survey astronomy, the analysis of large-scale datasets, including in the very near future the incredible optical harvest we expect from the Vera Rubin Observatory. Working with Breakthrough Listen on these data will explore previously uncharted territory.”
“We are delighted to launch a new era of Listen here at Oxford,” added Executive Director of the Breakthrough Initiatives Dr S. Pete Worden. “This collaboration will be a tremendous fusion of knowledge, resources, and passion to understand our place in the cosmos.”
Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Foundation
Milner, the founder of the Breakthrough Initiatives, is passionate about furthering SETI projects and space exploration. As a boy, he read Carl Sagan and Iosif Shklovsky’s book Intelligent Life in the Universe, which sparked a lifelong fascination with the topic.
Milner’s Breakthrough Foundation has committed $100 million to the Listen programme. Other Breakthrough Initiatives to receive funding from the Foundation include Watch, Message, and Starshot. Starshot, a $100 million research and engineering programme, is developing new technology for uncrewed interstellar travel.
In 2021, Milner released Eureka Manifesto: The Mission for Our Civilisation. Eureka Manifesto discusses humanity’s need for a shared mission to explore and understand our Universe. The book also illuminates some of Milner’s ideas about scientific progress and the likelihood of intelligent life beyond Earth.
Shooting For the Moon
To continue the SETI mission, Listen and Oxford scientists will examine the possibility of establishing a radio astronomy site on the moon. Specifically, the lunar far side would be free from the radio frequency interference humans generate on Earth.
This interference-free location would allow a telescope unmatched sensitivity for detecting faint radio signals. Who knows what whispers from the stars Listen could detect with a lunar telescope?
Learn more about the Breakthrough Initiatives.
About Yuri Milner
Yuri Milner is a technology investor and science philanthropist. He founded DST Global in 2010, one of the world’s largest tech investment funds.
To realise his Giving Pledge commitment to invest in scientists and fundamental research, Milner launched the Breakthrough Foundation in 2012. The Foundation supports numerous science-focused projects, including Tech For Refugees and the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
Tech For Refugees is a non-profit initiative that funds the tech-driven humanitarian programmes of partners like Airbnb.org and Uber. Tech For Refugees supports refugees and displaced people in multiple crisis zones, including Ukraine, Pakistan, and Turkey.
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a global science competition for students. Each year, teenagers create and submit short videos that illuminate complex scientific ideas. The Breakthrough Junior Challenge winner, their school, and a teacher who inspired them receive several prizes worth a total of $400,000.
Milner also co-founded the Breakthrough Prize. The Breakthrough Prize recognises and celebrates the world’s greatest scientists and their pioneering achievements. Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Anne Wojcicki, and Sergey Brin are also Breakthrough Prize founders.
