Prospects of SETI with the GMRT
- Paper number
IAC-07-A4.1.01
- Author
Prof. Govind Swarup, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, India
- Year
2007
- Abstract
I discuss in this paper prospects and practical aspects for a SETI programme with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). It is a highly sensitive radio telescope consisting of 30 nos. of parabolic dishes, each of 45m in diameter that are placed in an array of about 25km in extent. The GMRT is located about 80 km north of Pune, India. It is currently world’s largest radio telescope operating in the frequency range of about 130 MHz to 1420 MHz. GMRT has been designed for observations of celestial radio sources from the nearby Jupiter to the most distant radio galaxies. GMRT is being used by hundreds of astronomers from India and more than 20 countries in the world. Recent developments of FPGAs and high speed PCs could allow building a practical spectrometer of 0.5 Hz resolution with over 100 million channels for SETI programme with the GMRT in two different modes: (a) Simultaneous SETI observations in any direction in which astronomical observations are being made as the existing electronic system provides independent outputs of phased as well incoherent arrays of the GMRT, apart from providing cross correlator output of all 30 antennas as required for the astronomical observations of celestial objects in the Universe. (b) SETI observations in the direction of about 200 selected stars could also be made if time for such observations is granted by the Time Allocation Committee. SETI with the GMRT would be practical only if any group of scientists in India or abroad utilize its capability.
- Abstract document