Related papers: Optical SETI with Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes
Optical tweezers are powerful tools based on focused laser beams. They are able to trap, manipulate and investigate a wide range of microscopic and nanoscopic particles in different media, such as liquids, air, and vacuum. Key applications…
Indirect searches for dark matter are based on detecting an anomalous flux of photons, neutrinos or cosmic-rays produced in annihilations or decays of dark matter candidates gravitationally accumulated in heavy cosmological objects, like…
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is an array of five imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Since 2003 it has been operating in the configuration of four 12 m telescopes complemented in 2012 by a much bigger 28 m telescope…
The Planetary Camera and Spectrograph (PCS) for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will be dedicated to detecting and characterising nearby exoplanets with sizes from sub-Neptune to Earth-size in the neighbourhood of the Sun. This goal is…
In recent years, ground-based very-high-energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) gamma-ray astronomy has experienced a major breakthrough with the impressive astrophysical results obtained mainly by the current generation experiments like H.E.S.S., MAGIC,…
The detection of life beyond Earth is an ongoing scientific endeavour, with profound implications. One approach, known as the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), seeks to find engineered signals (`technosignatures') that…
Direct imaging of exoplanets will allow us to directly observe the planet in reflected light. Such a scenario may eventually allow for the possibility to scan the planetary surface for the presence of artificial structures made by alien…
A promising method for the detection of UHE neutrinos is the Lunar Cherenkov technique, which utilises Earth-based radio telescopes to detect the coherent Cherenkov radiation emitted when a UHE neutrino interacts in the outer layers of the…
The ANTARES neutrino telescope is installed at a depth of 2.5 km of the Mediterranean Sea and consists of a three-dimensional array of 885 photomultipliers arranged on twelve detector lines. The prime objective is to detect high-energy…
With its unprecedented light-collecting area for night-sky observations, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) holds great potential for also optical stellar astronomy, in particular as a multi-element intensity interferometer for realizing…
The field of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) searches for ``technosignatures'' that could provide the first detection of life beyond Earth through the technology that an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) may have…
The presence of substructures in dark matter haloes is an unavoidable consequence of the cold dark matter paradigm. Indirect signals from these objects have been extensively searched for with cosmic rays and gamma-rays. At first sight,…
The last 20 years have seen the development of new techniques in Astroparticle Physics providing access to the highest end of the electromagnetic spectrum. It has been shown that some sources emit photons up to energies close to 100 TeV.…
The hunt for cosmic TeV particle accelerators is prospering through Imaging Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescopes. We face challenges such as low light levels and MHz trigger rates, and the need to distinguish between particle air showers…
RefPlanets is a guaranteed time observation (GTO) programme that uses the Zurich IMaging POLarimeter (ZIMPOL) of SPHERE/VLT for a blind search for exoplanets in wavelengths from 600-900 nm. The goals of this study are the characterization…
In order to avoid collisions with space debris, the near Earth orbit must be continuously scanned by either ground- or spaced-based facilities. For the low Earth orbit, radar telescopes are the workhorse for this task, especially due to…
It is difficult to discover pulsars via their gamma-ray emission because current instruments typically detect fewer than one photon per million rotations. This creates a significant computing challenge for isolated pulsars, where the…
Radio SETI experiments aim to test the hypothesis that extraterrestrial civilizations emit detectable signals from communication, propulsion, or other technologies. The unprecedented capabilities of next generation radio telescopes,…
A long-held astronomical vision is to realize diffraction-limited optical aperture synthesis over kilometer baselines. This will enable imaging of stellar surfaces and their environments, show their evolution over time, and reveal…
We present modeled detection limits of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) and the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST) to an optical and infrared laser which could be used by an extraterrestrial civilization to signal their presence.…