Project Phoenix is a SETI project scanning 1,000 nearby stars in search of extraterrestrial life. This project uses the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. The name "Phoenix" is used because the project rose from the "ashes" of Congress' decision to cut SETI from NASA's budget. SETI is now completely privately funded.

Project Phoenix generally begins its "day" at around 6 p.m. when darkness falls. Scientists begin observing at night because the solar wind, or plasma, broadens otherwise narrow-band signal coherence. About eight hours are spent observing the stars in Project Phoenix in each session.

Every anomaly and trace displayed on the spectrum analyzer is noted in the logbook by the scientist on duty. The computer also logs these signals, but the handwritten logs make it easier to see what research was done on specific dates and what the results were. More than 500 stars have been scanned. No extraterrestrial life has been found so far.

Each star that needs to be observed can only be viewed at the relevant frequencies for an hour or two at a time. The machine is slewed into place by a computer that decides which star is placed optimally at that particular point in time. A special supercomputer that was built specifically for this project processes data at more than one and a half trillion operations per second in order to sift through the massive amount of data collected. The left-hand polarization is displayed by one monitor, and the right-hand polarization is displayed on another monitor. A signal of intelligent origin (terrestrial or extraterrestrial) is indicated by faint straight lines passing at an angle through thousands of random points of light. The points of light each represent a bit of noise at one hertz resolution, and scroll down the screen to be viewed. Artificial signals are usually polarized, being displayed on one of the monitors as a heavier diagonal line.

Every star that is on the list for Project Phoenix to observe is within 200 light-years of Earth. The Project Phoenix "first run" will continue through 2003. This first run is designed to detect any powerful radio source that is intentionally pointed directly at us. An Earth-type civilization orbiting the nearest star to us, Proxima Centauri, would barely be detected by the equipment and technology in use right now. Unless there was an antenna with the dimensions like those of the Arecibo telescope deliberately transmitting to us, a civilization would not be detected at 84 light-years. If, however, there exists such an antenna transmitting to us at full power (one million watts), it would be detected up to 1,500 light-years away.

Project Phoenix works simultaneously with a radio telescope in Jodrell Bank, near Manchester, England. The dish at Jodrell Bank is one-fourth the diameter (250 feet) of the Arecibo stationary reflector (1,000 feet) and has much less resolution, so it is used primarily for the real-time confirmation of data from Arecibo. The two telescopes work together to verify interesting signals. The telescope at Jodrell always points in the same place as the one at Arecibo. Signals that are unique to the Arecibo telescope are confirmed at Jodrell. If the signal is above Jodrell Bank's noise floor, and Jodrell doesn't find the same unique characteristics, then it can be assumed that the signal is local to Arecibo, and therefore not extraterrestrial. In this case, a satellite, aircraft, radar or other locally generated noise probably produced the signal.

When the signal originating in Arecibo is confirmed at Jodrell Bank, the next step is for the computer to observe the Doppler shift of the signal. If the Doppler shift seems accurate for the target, the Jodrell bank dish is pointed to one side of the target star, and the Arecibo dish remains stationary while the Gregorian feed moves to one side. Locally transmitted signals will remain when the antennas are off axis. Signals are considered interesting when they disappear during the off axis test. This test is repeated multiple times in order to be certain of the results.

Binary stars are also searched by Project Phoenix. It is believed that life can exist in these systems if the stars are far enough apart that planets that would orbit them are not affected by the gravity of the other star, or if the stars are close enough together that their planets would orbit both stars.

The Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations (a.k.a. SERENDIP) is also run at Arecibo. A 16-foot antenna connected to custom-designed software and hardware is used to scan and process data continuously in real time, regardless of the position of the antenna. The area that is scanned is centered around 1420 MHz (the hydrogen band) and is 100 MHz wide. Since the position of the antenna doesn't matter in this project, SERENDIP doesn't need dedicated telescope time. For this same reason, the project must ask for telescope time to confirm any interesting signals in real time.

This project, stationed in Berkeley, California, has formed by far the world's largest supercomputer. SETI@home (www.setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu) receives its data on tapes mailed from Arecibo and processes a two MHz wide signal produced from the SERENDIP project. It is extremely well suited (more so than Phoenix and SERENDIP) to find extraterrestrial life on a moon orbiting a Jovian-type planet around a star. It is the job of SERENDIP and SETI@home to look where Phoenix's antenna is not pointed. This makes the SERENDIP/SETI@home antenna twice as fast as Phoenix's Gregorian Feed in scanning the target stars. However, most of the time all that is observed is noise.

Reference:

1. Fitz., Jerry D. Looking for ET at Arecibo; Joining the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). 2000.