A Large-scale Technosignature Survey of the Antisolar Point with the Allen Telescope Array: Survey Design and Pilot Results

Abstract In the search for technosignatures, it can be useful to narrow down the cosmic haystack by prioritizing time-coordinate “Schelling points” at which a beacon may be more likely to be transmitted. One such Schelling point is the antisolar point (ASP), the place and moment at which Earth would lie directly between a hypothetical transmitter in the Earth's transit zone (i.e., ecliptic) and the Sun. In this work, we describe a campaign to survey the ASP for radio technosignatures using the Allen Telescope Array, report the results of 3 initial nights of data from a pilot study in summer 2023, and discuss the future of the campaign. In the pilot study, we find no sky-localized narrowband 1–2.4 GHz technosignatures within an R.A. range of approximately 20.266–21.312 hr during the ASP, setting an upper limit flux density threshold of 115–936 Jy.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astronomical Journal
Published
2026-11-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aeaa59
Primary Topic
Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

A Large-scale Technosignature Survey of the Antisolar Point with the Allen Telescope Array: Survey Design and Pilot Results

Andrew P. V. Siemion, Luigi Freitas Cruz, Carol Shumaker, Eleanor Hort et al.
The Astronomical Journal
Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
article

A Large-scale Technosignature Survey of the Antisolar Point with the Allen Telescope Array: Survey Design and Pilot Results

Andrew P. V. Siemion, Luigi Freitas Cruz, Carol Shumaker, Eleanor Hort, David R. DeBoer, Sofia Z. Sheikh, Wael Farah, Nick Tusay, Seth Shostak, Joe Bright, Alexander W. Pollak, Bárbara Cabrales, Ben Jacobson-Bell, Saul Balcarcel-Salazar, Isabel Gerrard, Mark Masters
article en

Abstract

Abstract In the search for technosignatures, it can be useful to narrow down the cosmic haystack by prioritizing time-coordinate “Schelling points” at which a beacon may be more likely to be transmitted. One such Schelling point is the antisolar point (ASP), the place and moment at which Earth would lie directly between a hypothetical transmitter in the Earth's transit zone (i.e., ecliptic) and the Sun. In this work, we describe a campaign to survey the ASP for radio technosignatures using the Allen Telescope Array, report the results of 3 initial nights of data from a pilot study in summer 2023, and discuss the future of the campaign. In the pilot study, we find no sky-localized narrowband 1–2.4 GHz technosignatures within an R.A. range of approximately 20.266–21.312 hr during the ASP, setting an upper limit flux density threshold of 115–936 Jy.

The Astronomical JournalVol. 172(6)
University of New Mexico (US), University of Malta (MT), University of Washington (US), University of California System (US), University of Manchester (GB), University of Oxford (GB), Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (US), University of California, Berkeley (US), Stanford University (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
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