Listening for Life at the Green Bank Observatory

Victoria “Cat” Catlett worked as a software engineer for the Green Bank Observatory (GBO), developing and maintaining the monitor and control systems of the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope (GBT). Cat is now entering their second year as a physics graduate student at Oregon State University (OSU), where they do research for the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) under the support of the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF).

For more than 60 years, the Green Bank Observatory (GBO) has provided astronomers with a unique window into the radio universe, enabling discoveries ranging from detections of molecules in interstellar space to evidence of gravitational waves in pulsar timing. This talk will introduce the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and the science it enables, emphasizing its role in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The primary discussion will focus on the 2023 “A Sign in Space” performance, an international dress rehearsal for first contact wherein the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter transmitted a coded message to Earth, which was subsequently detected by the GBT and other radio observatories and decoded by the public over the course of the next year.