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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astronomical Journal

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

  • Sofia Z. Sheikh1,2
  • Eleanor Hort3
  • Bárbara Cabrales4
  • Isabel Gerrard1,5
  • Wael Farah1
  • Nick Tusay6
  • David R. DeBoer5,7
  • Saul Balcarcel-Salazar8
  • Joe S. Bright1
  • Luigi F. Cruz1
  • Ben Jacobson-Bell2,9
  • Mark Masters1
4 more authors
  • Alexander W. Pollak1
  • Seth Shostak1
  • Carol Shumaker1
  • Andrew Siemion1,2,4,5,10
10 affiliations
  1. 1SETI Institute
  2. 2Berkeley SETI Research Center
  3. 3University of New Mexico
  4. 4The University of Manchester
  5. 5University of Oxford
  6. 6University of Washington
  7. 7University of California
  8. 8Stanford University
  9. 9Department of Astronomy
  10. 10University of Malta
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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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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{sheikh2026largescale,
  title = {{A Large-scale Technosignature Survey of the Antisolar Point with the Allen Telescope Array: Survey Design and Pilot Results}},
  author = {Sofia Z. Sheikh and Eleanor Hort and Bárbara Cabrales and Isabel Gerrard and Wael Farah and Nick Tusay and David R. DeBoer and Saul Balcarcel-Salazar and Joe S. Bright and Luigi F. Cruz and Ben Jacobson-Bell and Mark Masters and Alexander W. Pollak and Seth Shostak and Carol Shumaker and Andrew Siemion},
  journal = {The Astronomical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-3881/aeaa59},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aeaa59},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - A Large-scale Technosignature Survey of the Antisolar Point with the Allen Telescope Array: Survey Design and Pilot Results
AU  - Sofia Z. Sheikh
AU  - Eleanor Hort
AU  - Bárbara Cabrales
AU  - Isabel Gerrard
AU  - Wael Farah
AU  - Nick Tusay
AU  - David R. DeBoer
AU  - Saul Balcarcel-Salazar
AU  - Joe S. Bright
AU  - Luigi F. Cruz
AU  - Ben Jacobson-Bell
AU  - Mark Masters
AU  - Alexander W. Pollak
AU  - Seth Shostak
AU  - Carol Shumaker
AU  - Andrew Siemion
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/03
JO  - The Astronomical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-3881/aeaa59
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aeaa59
AB  - 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.
SN  - 0004-6256
SN  - 1538-3881
ER  -