Title

A search for brief optical flashes associated with the SETI target KIC 8462852

Authors

P. T. Reynolds, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Bishopstown, Cork, Ireland
et al

Document Type

Article

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Disciplines

Astrophysics and Astronomy | Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity | External Galaxies | Instrumentation | Other Astrophysics and Astronomy | Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy

Publication Details

Astrophysical Journal Letters

Abstract

The F-type star KIC 8462852 has recently been identified as an exceptional target for search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) observations. We describe an analysis methodology for optical SETI, which we have used to analyze nine hours of serendipitous archival observations of KIC 8462852 made with the VERITAS gamma-ray observatory between 2009 and 2015. No evidence of pulsed optical beacons, above a pulse intensity at the Earth of approximately , is found. We also discuss the potential use of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays in searching for extremely short duration optical transients in general.

Recommended Citation

Abeysekara, A.U., Archambault, S., Archer, A., Benbow, W., Bird, R., Buchovecky, M., Buckley, J.H., Byrum, K., Cardenzana, J.V., Cerruti, M., Chen, X., Christiansen, J.L., Ciupik, L., Cui, W., Dickinson, H.J., Eisch, J.D., Errando, M., Falcone, A., Fegan, D.J., Feng, Q., Finley, J.P., Fleischhack, H., Fortin, P., Fortson, L., Furniss, A., Gillanders, G.H., Griffin, S., Grube, J., Gyuk, G., Hütten, M., Håkansson, N., Hanna, D., Holder, J., Humensky, T.B., Johnson, C.A., Kaaret, P., Kar, P., Kelley-Hoskins, N., Kertzman, M., Kieda, D., Krause, M., Krennrich, F., Kumar, S., Lang, M.J., Lin, T.T.Y., Maier, G., McArthur, S., McCann, A., Meagher, K., Moriarty, P., Mukherjee, R., Nieto, D., O’Brien, S., Bhróithe, A.O. de, Ong, R.A., Otte, A.N., Park, N., Perkins, J.S., Petrashyk, A., Pohl, M., Popkow, A., Pueschel, E., Quinn, J., Ragan, K., Ratliff, G., Reynolds, P.T., Richards, G.T., Roache, E., Santander, M., Sembroski, G.H., Shahinyan, K., Staszak, D., Telezhinsky, I., Tucci, J.V., Tyler, J., Vincent, S., Wakely, S.P., Weiner, O.M., Weinstein, A., Williams, D.A. and Zitzer, B. (2016). A SEARCH FOR BRIEF OPTICAL FLASHES ASSOCIATED WITH THE SETI TARGET KIC 8462852. The Astrophysical Journal,818(2), p.L33. Available at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8205/818/2/L33 ‌