
This is a list showing the SETI searches that was conducted in the optical and near infrared spectrum of the EM spectrum.
This list contains the results from searches conducted in 1977 up to present day research.
To see the bibliographic information, click on the title of the search you’re interested in.
| Title | Date | Observers | Site | Objects | Instrument Size (m) | Flux Limit (W/m^2) | Search Wavelength (nm) | Resolution | Hours Observed | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MANIA | 1973-1974 | SHVARTSMAN, ET AL. | SPECIAL ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY | 21 PECULIAR OBJECTS | 0.6 | 550 | Δt = 10-7 to 100 seconds | FULL PAPER | ||
| Methods and Results of an Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations | 1978-1996 | SHVARTSMAN, ET AL. | SPECIAL ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY | 93 OBJECTS | 6 | 3 x 10-4 | 550 | Δt = 10-7 seconds | 250 | FULL PAPER |
| A Search for Linear Alignments of Gamma Ray Burst Sources | 1978-1980 | MICHAEL J. HARRIS | INTERPLANETARY NETWORK DATA | 54 GAMMA RAY BURST EVENTS | PIONEER VENUS & VENERA 11 & 12 SPACECRAFT | 20 keV – 1 MeV | FULL PAPER | |||
| A search for natural or artificial objects located at the Earth-Moon libration points | 1979 | FREITAS,VALDES | LEUSCHNER OBSERVATORY, UCB | STABLE “HALO ORBITS” ABOUT L4 & L5 LIBRATION POINTS IN EARTH-MOON SYSTEM | 0.76 | mv = 14 (magnitude) | 550 | 30 | FULL PAPER | |
| IR EXCESS FROM DYSON SPHERES | 1980 | WITTEBORN | NASA – U OF A, MT. LEMON | 20 STARS | 1.5 | N MAGNITUDE EXCESS | 8500 – 13500 | 1 micron | 50 | BLURB (P. 5) |
| SETA | 1981-1982 | VALDES,FREITAS | KPNO | EARTH-MOON THROUGH L5, SUN-EARTH L1, L2 | 0.61 | mv = 19 (magnitude) | 550 | 70 | FULL PAPER | |
| DYSON SPHERE SEARCH USING IRAS DATABASE | 1983 | Richard A. Carrigan Jr | ~7000 | 1527 sources | 0.6 | 0.5 Jy | 12000, 25000, 60000 | 3 color bands | ~7000 hours | FULL PAPER |
| A Search in the Infrared to Microwave for Astroengineering Activity | 1984 | SLYSH | IRAS Satellite | 200,000 objects | 0.6 | 0.5 Jy | 12000, 25000, 60000, 100000 | ~7000 hours | FULL PAPER | |
| A Search for Dyson Spheres Around Late-Type Stars in the Solar Neighborhood | 1993 | JUGAKU, NOGUCHI , NISHIMURA | INFRARED TELESCOPE OF INSTITUTE OF SPACE AND ASTRONAUTICAL SCIENCE, JAPAN AND INFRARED TELESCOPE AT XINGLONG STATION OF THE BEIJING ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY | 180 SOLAR-TYPE STARS | 1.3, 1.26 | 2200 | 12000 | FULL PAPER | ||
| Prototype Optical SETI Observatory (COSETI) | 1995-1998 | KINGSLEY | COLUMBUS OPTICAL SETI OBSERVATORY, OHIO | NEARBY SOLAR-TYPE STARS | 0.25 | TRANSMITTERS WITH PEAK INSTANTANEOUS POWER > 10 18 W | 550 | SUMMARY | ||
| Proposed SETI Search with ISO | 1996-1998 | TILGNER, HEINRICHSEN, KRUGER | ISO (INFRARED SPACE OBSERVATORY) SATELLITE, ISOPHOT PHOTOPOLARIMETER | 6 SOLAR-TYPE STARS AND 1 INFRARED-EXCESS TARGET STAR | 0.6 | [(30 – 90) x 10-29] (S/N = 10) | 3000 – 100000 | 0.2 MICRONS (3 MICRON FILTER BAND) 51 MICRONS (90 MICRON FILTER BAND) | 1.3 HOURS (GUARANTEED SCHEDULE) | FULL PAPER |
| SEVENDIP | 1997-2007 | WERTHIMER | LEUSCHNER OBSERVATORY | 2500 nearby stars + globular clusters and nearby galaxies | 0.76 | 1.5 x 10-9 PEAK DURING 1ns PULSE;OR 1.5 x 10-20 AVERAGE PER 100 SECOND OBSERVATION | 300 – 650 | 200 | ABSTRACT | |
| A search for Dyson spheres around late-type stars in the solar neighborhood III | 1997 (A) | JUGAKU | Archival from IRAS | Nishimura”(A) 50 stars (B) 135 stars (C) 19 stars” | 2200 – 12000 | FULL PAPER | ||||
| Harvard OSETI – Initial Exoplanet Searches | 1998-2005 | HOROWITZ ET AL. (HARVARD OPTICAL SETI) | OAK RIDGE OBSERVATORY | 13000 SOLAR-TYPE STARS OF WHICH 4000 OBSERVED TO DATE | 1.5 | 4 x 10-9 PEAK IN -20 AVERAGE PER 500 SECOND OBSERVATION;OR 4 x 10-20 AVERAGE PER 500 SECOND OBSERVATION | 350 – 700 | 2400 | FULL PAPER | |
| Reanalysis of Doppler Wobble Data for Laser Signals with HIRES at KECK | 1998-2002 | Reines A.E., Marcy G.W. | LICK, KECK | 577 FGK STARS WITHIN 100 pc | 10 | 3.4 x 10-17 | 400 – 500 | 5 km s-1 | 500 | FULL PAPER |
| A search of the IRAS database for evidence of Dyson Spheres | 2000-2005 | Timofeev M.Y., KARDASHEV N.S., Promyslov V.G | Archival from IRAS | IRAS Database | 0.6 | 0.5 Jy | 10000-10000000 | ~7000 hours | FULL PAPER | |
| LICK OSETI | 2000-2005 | DRAKE ET AL., LICK OPTICAL SETI | LICK OBSERVATORY, UC SANTA CRUZ | 5039 SOLAR-TYPE STARS PLANNED | 1 (NICKEL REFLECTOR) | 1 x 10-9 PEAK DURING 1 ns PULSE;OR 1 x 10-20 AVERAGE | 550 | SUSPENDED IN SPRING 1999 | ABSTRACT | |
| Cambeltown Australia OSETI | 2000-2006 | BHATHAL R., DARCY | CAMPBELLTOWN ROTARY OBSERVATORY, OZ OSETI | 200 SOLAR-TYPE STARS AND 25 GLOBULAR CLUSTERS | 0.4, 0.3 | 6 x 10-9 PEAK DURING 1ns PULSE | 550 | WEBSITE | ||
| A search for Dyson spheres around late-type stars in the solar neighborhood III | 1997 (A) | JUGAKU | Archival from IRAS | Nishimura”(A) 50 stars (B) 135 stars (C) 19 stars” | 2200 – 12000 | FULL PAPER | ||||
| Harvard OSETI with Princeton | 2001-2002 | Wilkinson, Deffenbaugh N. (Harvard Optical Seti | Fitz-Randolph Observatory | Same Targets Simultaneously as Harvard OSETI program | 0.91 | 3.4 x 10-17 | 350 – 700 | FULL PAPER | ||
| Optical SETI observations with the NAYUTA telescope | 2004-2009 | Narusawa | NAYUTA telescope at Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory (NHAO) | 13 F, G, K, M stars | 2 | 1016 W | 487 – 577 | 0.6 Å | 56 nights | FULL PAPER (p.1), FULL PAPER (p.2) |
| Optical and Radio Searches on Dyson Sphere Candidates | 2004 | Conroy Charlie, Werthimer Dan, Dyson Sphere Search | Leuschner Observatory; optical SETI pulse search; Serendip IV; SETI@home | 32 stars from IRAS and 2MASS catalog | 0.76 | ~3 sigma above mean | 390 – 700 | UNAVAILABLE | ||
| A search for Dyson spheres around late-type stars in the solar neighborhood III | 1997 (A) | JUGAKU | Archival from IRAS | Nishimura”(A) 50 stars (B) 135 stars (C) 19 stars” | 2200 – 12000 | FULL PAPER | ||||
| OSETI with Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes | 2005 | Holder et. al. | VERITAS (Whipple) | HIP 107395 | 10 | 10 photons/m2 | Temporal resolution: a few ns | 0.467 | FULL PAPER | |
| Initial Results from Harvard All-Sky Optical SETI | 2006-2015 | Howard Andrew, Horowitz Paul, Mead Curtis | Oak Ridge Observatory | Survey of 80% of the sky | 1.8 | 10 photons/m2 per nanosecond | 150 | FULL PAPER | ||
| Search for Dyson Spheres using the IRAS catalog | 2008 | Carrigan D. | Archival from IRAS | 17 stars with Planckian distributions | 0.6 | 0.5 Jy | 12000, 25000, 60000 | ~7000 hours | FULL PAPER | |
| OSETI with STACEE | 2009 | Hanna et al. | Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE) | 187 stars | 64 heliostats (37 square meter area) | 10 photons/m2 | 420 | Temporal resolution: 12 ns | 31.17 | FULL PAPER |
| Project SAZANKA | 2011 | Narusawa S., Fujishita M., Team Sazanka | 26 optical telescopes. Including 2 m Nayuta | 30 arc-minute field of the Cassiopeia constellations | 2 m Nayuta, +25 others | ABSTRACT | ||||
| SOFOS (The Scanning Observatory For Optical SETI) | 2013 | Covault, Corbin | Scanning Observatory for Optical SETI (SOFOS) | 3.5 | 10 photons/m2 | ABSTRACT | ||||
| The G-hat Infrared Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies | 2014-2016 | Wright et. al. | Archival from WISE | ~ 105 galaxies | 3400, 4600, 12000, 22000 | FULL PAPER (p.1), FULL PAPER (p.2), FULL PAPER (p.3), FULL PAPER (p.4) | ||||
| A Search for Optical Laser Emissions Using Keck HIRES | 2015 | Tellis N.K., Marcy G.W. | Archival from CPS exoplanet survey, Keck, Lick | 2796 stars, including 1368 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) that host one or more exoplanets | 10 m | 3.45E-21;3.45E-19 | 3640-7890 A | FULL PAPER | ||
| The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life | 2015-ON | Breakthrough Listen Team | Automated Planet Finder (Lick Observatory)Green Bank Telescope Parkes Telescope | 1649 main sequence and giant stars 123 galaxies of varying morphology: spirals, ellipticals, dwarf spherioidals, and irregulars | 2.4, 100, 64 | > 1013 W at 1.1-1.9 GHz,;1.7 x 10-25 | 374 – 950 | R = 10 5, Temporal Resolution: 18 seconds | Ongoing, 400 hours published | FULL PAPER |
| A SEARCH FOR BRIEF OPTICAL FLASHES ASSOCIATED WITH TABBY’S STAR | 2015 | Abeysekara et. al. | VERITAS | KIC 8462852 | 12 | 1 photons/m2 | 300 – 500 | Temporal resolution: 1 ns | 526 minutes | FULL PAPER |
| OPTICAL SETI OBSERVATIONS OF THE ANOMALOUS STAR KIC 8462852 (Tabby’s Star) | 2015 | Schuetz et. al. | Boquete Optical SETI Observatory | KIC 8462852 | 0.5 | 67 photons/m2 | 350 – 600 | Temporal resolution: 25 ns | < 6 hours | FULL PAPER |
| Reanalysis of Doppler Wobble with upgraded HIRES @ Keck | 2015 (A), 2017 (B) | Nathaniel K. Tellis and Geoffrey W. Marcy | Keck-I/HIRES | (A) 2796 F, G, K and M stars (B) 5600 F, G, K and M stars | 10 | (A) > 90 W and 1kW if ;(B) > 3 kW – 13 MW (independent of distance) | 364 – 789 | R = 60000 (5.6 km/s) | (A)SNR ~100-200 (B)decade worth of data | FULL PAPER (A), FULL PAPER (B) |
| NIROSETI | 2016-ON | Maire et. al. (NIROSETI) | Lick Observatory/Nickel Telescope | 1340 objects, including main-sequence and giant stars, 20 spirals, 36 ellipticals, 15 dwarf spheroidals, 9 irregulars, and 2 SO galaxies | 1 | 380 photons/m2 | 950 – 1650 | Temporal resolution: 0.4 ns | ONGOING | FULL PAPER |
| The Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations project: 1. USNO objects missing in modern surveys and follow-up observations of a “missing stars” | 2017-2019 – it goes on! | Villarroel B. et al. | 90 million USNO objects (15% of our sample) | 350 – 1000 | 1.7 arcsec/pixel | https://technos… | ||||
| The trillion planet survey: an optical search for directed intelligence in M31 | 2017-ON | Stewart, Andrew ; Lubin, Philip | Sedgewick Reserve, Santa Barbara, CA | M31 (Andromeda) | 0.8 m reflecting telescope | 100 photons/ m2 | 390 – 700 | 100 photons/nanosecond | ONGOING | ABSTRACT |
| SETI WITH GAIA: SEARCH FOR DYSON SPHERES | 2017 | Zackrisson Erik, Korn J. Andreas, Wehrhahn Ansgar | Roque de los Muchachos Observatory | TYC 6111-1162-1 | 2.56 | 370-830 | Resolving Power = 67,000 | 1 hour | FULL PAPER | |
| Search for Nanosecond Near-infrared Transients around 1280 Celestial Objects | 2019 | Maire, J. et al | Nickel Telescope, Lick Observatory | 1280 Astronomical Objects for short pulses | 1 m | 9.60E-18 | 950-1650 nm | 50 ns | 106 | FULL PAPER |
| A search for monochromatic light towards the Galactic Centre | 2021 | Marcy G.W., Tellis N.K., et. al | Center for Space Laser Awareness, Schmidt Telescope | Galactic Centre | 0.28 m | 380-950 nm | 20-100 A | FULL PAPER | ||
| A Search for Transient, Monochromatic Light from the Galactic Plane | 2022 | Marcy G.W., Tellis N.K. | Center for Space Laser Awareness, Schmidt Telescope | Wolf-Rayet stars, M dwarf flare stars, planetary nebulae, an aircraft with a monochromatic lamp and a xenon lamp | 0.28 m | 2 to 10 – 380 to 950 nm | R ~ 100 | FULL PAPER |