Ruby van Rooyen 

Main Organiser

SARAO

In July 2015, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced the “Breakthrough Initiatives” – a series of large scale science programs to explore the possibility of other life in the universe. The first initiative launched was “Breakthrough Listen” – a 10-year effort to search for evidence of intelligent life among the nearest stars and nearest galaxies. The Breakthrough Listen program uses some of the largest and most sophisticated telescopes on the planet, including the 100m Green Bank Telescope in the United States and the 65m Parkes Telescope in Australia.

A key component of Breakthrough Listen is the public availability of both observational data and analysis software.

Expanding its global network to the African continent, Breakthrough Listen will employ the MeerKAT Telescope in a powerful new search of a million nearby stars.

Breakthrough Listen, the global initiative to seek signs of intelligent life in the universe – announced on 2 October 2018 at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany, the commencement of a major new program with the MeerKAT telescope in partnership with the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).

Breakthrough Listen’s MeerKAT survey will examine a million individual stars – 1,000 times the number of targets in any previous search – in the quietest part of the radio spectrum, monitoring for signs of extraterrestrial technology. With the addition of MeerKAT’s observations to its existing surveys, Listen will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in parallel with other surveys.

“Collaborating with MeerKAT will significantly enhance the capabilities of Breakthrough Listen”, said Yuri Milner, founder of the Breakthrough Initiatives. “This is now a truly global project.”