New Partnership between Listen and Sardinia Radio Telescope Expands the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Breakthrough Listen has joined forces with Italy's Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) to search for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth. The partnership marks another addition to Listen's global network of collaborations with major telescopes.

The SRT is one of the ten largest radio telescopes on the planet, boasting a 64-meter dish. Using advanced computing equipment installed on the instrument, researchers have already conducted extensive observations of compelling targets. The a study, led by four students who worked at the SRT in 2022, surveyed both the bustling center of the Milky Way galaxy and 72 carefully selected stars identified by NASA's TESS satellite as potentially hosting planets.

While no confirmed extraterrestrial signals were detected in its initial survey, the research has helped place new constraints on the presence of radio technology in our galaxy. The findings have been submitted to the peer-reviewed journal Acta Astronautica.

The partnership with SRT enables Listen to detect radio signals at frequencies around 18 GHz – a range that hasn't been thoroughly explored in previous SETI searches.