THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS INTERNA TIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION UNION ASTRONOMIQUE INTERNATIONALE THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS PROCEEDINGS OF THE 112TH SYMPOSIUM OF THE INTERNA TlONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION HELD AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY, BOSTON, MASS., U.S.A., JUNE 18-21,1984 EDITED BY MICHAEL D. PAPAGIANNIS Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, Mass., U.S.A. D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP DORDRECHT/BOSTON/LANCASTER/TOKYO library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data International Astronomical Union. Symposium (112th: 1984: Boston University) The search for extraterrestrial life - recent developments. Includes index. 1. Life on other planets-Congresses. I. Papagiannis, Michael D., 1932- II. Title. QB54.I57 1984 574.999 85-18282 ISBN-13: 978-90-277-2114-3 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-5462-5 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-5462-5 Published on behalf of the International Astronomical Union by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P. 0. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland All Rights Reserved © 1985 by the International Astronomical Union Softcover reprint oft he hardcover 1st edition 1985 Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 190 Old Derby Street, Hingham, MA 02043, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P. O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, in.eluding photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. A C K NOW LED GEM E N T S IAU Commission 51 expresses its deep appreciation to the: INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION (IAU) NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA) BOSTON UNIVERSITY (B.U.) for their generous financial and moral support, which made possible this first IAU Symposium of our new lAU Commission. D E D I CAT ION I would like to dedicate this Volume to my mother MS. THEMITSA PAPAGIANNIS who follows with love from Greece all the work we do. v ORGANIZING COMMISSION OF IAU SYMPOSIUM 112 IAU COMMISSION 51 - SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE COSPONSORING IAU COMMISSIONS NO. 15 - PHYSICAL STUDY OF COMETS, MINOR PLANETS AND METEORITES NO. 16 - PHYSICAL STUDY OF PLANETS NO. 24 - PHOTOGRAPHIC ASTROMETRY NO. 40 - RADIO ASTRONOMY COSPONSORING INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS COSPAR (ICSU COMMITTEE OF SPACE RESEARCH) IAF/IAA (INTERN. ASTRONAUT. FED./ INTERN. ACAD. OF ASTRONAUT.) ISSOL (INTERN. SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE) IUBS (INTERNATIONAL UNION OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND DEDICATION ....................................... v SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZATION' COSPONSORSHIPS ............................ vi ~~ SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE &L OCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ...... xiii LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ................................................. xv PREFACE, M.D. Papagiannis ........................................... xix FIGURE 1, Morrison holding commemorative plaque with Papagiannis and Drake ......................................................... xxiii FIGURE 2, Purcell, Morrison, Sagan, Papagiannis, and Drake at the Symposium Banquet ............................................ xxv SECTION I. HISTORY AND SPECIAL EVENTS ................................. 1 INTRODUCTION, The Editor .............................................. 3 A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE, Michael D. Papagiannis ......................................... 5 TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS, Philip Morrison.: .................................... 13 SETI IS COMING OF AGE, Giuseppe Cocconi .............................. 21 WELCOMING ADDRESS, Arthur G.B. Metcalf ............................... 23 INVOCATION, Bishop Demetrios Trakatellis ............................. 25 SECTION II. THE SEARCH FOR OTHER PLANETARY SySTEMS ................... 27 INTRODUCTION, The Editor ............................................. 29 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS A REVIEW OF THE SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE AND METHODS USED IN THE SEARCH FOR OTHER PLANETARY SYSTEMS, David C. Black ................... 33 PROTOPLANETARY MATERIAL AROUND NEARBY STARS, Hartmut H. Aumann ....... 43 ON THE NUMBER OF GALACTIC PLANETARY SYSTEMS, Steven Beckwith ......... 51 PLANETARY SEARCHES USING OPTICAL ASTROMETRIC INTERFEROMETERS, D.H. Staelin, M.M. Colavita, and M.Shao .............................. 59 A NEW OBJECTIVE FOR THE ALLEGHENY OBSERVATORY 30-INCH REFRACTOR, G.D. Gatewood, J.K. de Jonge, J. Stein, and C. DiFatta ............... 65 PROSPECTS FOR SPACE TELESCOPE IN THE SEARCH FOR OTHER PLANETARY SYSTEMS, J.L. RusselL ............................................... 75 DETECTING DISTANT PLANETS WITH SPACE TELESCOPE, Thornton Page ........ 85 ABSOLUTE ASTRONOMICAL ACCELEROMETRY: A NEW TOOL FOR PLANETARY SEARCHING, Pierre Connes ............................................. 91 ASSISTING EXTRASOLAR PLANETARY DETECTION THROUGH THE DETERMINATION OF STELLAR SPACE ORIENTATIONS, Laurance R. Doyle ..................... 97 SECTION III. PLANETARY, INTERPLANETARY AND INTERSTELLAR ORGANIC MATTER ...................... '. .................. 101 INTRODUCTION, The Editor ............................................ 103 TITAN'S ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, C. Sagan, W.R. Thompson, and B. N. Khare ....................................................... 107 PREBIOTIC MATTER IN INTERSTELLAR MOLECULES, Ronald D. Brown ......... 123 RECENT OBSERVATIONS OF ORGANIC MOLECULES IN NEARBY COLD, DARK INTERSTELLAR CLOUDS, H. Suzuki, M. Ohishi, M. Morimoto, N. Kaifu, P. Friberg, W.M. Irvine, H.E. Matthews, and S. Saito ...... 139 INFRARED SPECTRAL IDENTIFICATION OF COMPLEX ORGANIC MOLECULES IN INTERSTELLAR GRAINS, J. Mayo Greenberg and Willem Schutte ........... 145 UNIVERSAL PROTEIN ANCESTORS FROM HYDROGEN CYANIDE AND WATER, Clifford N. Matthews ..............•................................. 151 PANSPERMIA - A MODERN ASTROPHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL APPROACH, J. Mayo Greenberg and Peter Weber ................................... 157 TABLE OF CONTENTS ix NO VALID EVIDENCE EXISTS FOR INTERSTELLAR PROTEINS, BACTERIA, ETC, R.E. Davies, A.M. Delluva, and R.H. Koch ............................ 165 ASTRONOMICAL SOURCES OF CIRCULARLY POLARIZED LIGHT AND THEIR ROLE IN DETERMINING MOLECULAR CHIRALITY ON EARTH, Ramon D.. Wolstencroft ............................................... 171 SECTION IV. UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION ............... 177 INTRODUCTION, The Edi tor ............................................ 179 SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS IN CHEMICAL EVOLUTION, Cyril Ponnamperuma .... 185 MOLECULAR REPLICATION, Leslie E. Orgel .............................. 199 THE PRECAMBRIAN EVOLUTION OF TERRESTRIAL LIFE, Andrew H. Knoll ...... 201 HUMAN EVOLUTION: THE VIEW FROM SATURN, Misia Landau ................. 213 SOME IMPLICATIONS OF MASS EXTINCTION FOR THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEX LIFE, J. John Sepkoski, Jr .......................................... 223 EVIDENCE FOR A SOLAR COMPANION STAR, Richard A. Muller .............. 233 THE UNIVERSAL DIAGRAMS AND LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, Minas Kafatos ...... 245 UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF BIOLOGICAL EVOWTION, John A. Bal1. ............ 251 ON THE OCCURRENCE AND APPEARANCE OF GALACTIC LIFE FORMS: A THERMODYNAMIC APPROACH, G. Bodifee and C. de Loore ................ 255 SECTION V. RADIO SEARCHES - RECENT OBSERVATIONS ..................... 261 INTRODUCTION, The Editor ............................................ 263 SETI OBSERVATIONS WORLDWIDE, Jill Tarter ............................. 271 PROJECT SENTINEL: ULTRA-NARROWBAND SETI AT HARVARD/SMITHSONIAN, Paul Horowitz and John Forster ...................................... 291 THE OHIO SETI PROGRAM - THE FIRST DECADE, Robert S. Dixon ........... 305 A SEARCH IN THE INFRARED TO MICROWAVE FOR ASTROENGINEERING ACTIVITY, V.I. Slysh ................................................ 315 x TABLE OF CONTENTS SEARCH FOR STRONGLY POLARIZED RADIO EMISSION FROM E.T.I., AND AN OPTIMIST APPROACH TO THE GREAT SILENCE (FERMI'S PARADOX) , J.P. Vallee ......................................................... 321 LUNAR REFLECTIONS OF TERRESTRIAL RADIO LEAKAGE, Woodruff T. Sullivan, III and Stephen H. Knowles ................................ 327 EAVESDROPPING DETECTION OF RADIO SIGNALS FROM OTHER PLANETS WITH ONE BIT IMPLEMENTATION TECHNIQUES USING EXISTING COMPUTERS, Stephen H. Knowles .................................................. 3.35 SECTION VI. TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS IN RADIO SEARCHES ................ 341 INTRODUCTION, The Editor ............................................ 343 SET!: A MORE ECLECTIC APPROACH, Bernard M. Oliver ................... 351 THE 8-MILLION CHANNEL NARROWBAND ANALYZER, Paul Horowitz, John Forster, and Ivan Linscott ..................................... 361 THE MULTICHANNEL SPECTRUM ANALYZER, A.M. Peterson, K.S. Chen, and I.R. Linscott ................................................... 373 SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF DETECTION ALGORITHMS FOR THE MCSA, D. Kent Cullers ..................................................... 385 SETI: THE MICROWAVE SEARCH PROBLEM AND THE TARGETED SEARCH APPROACH, Charles L. Seeger and John H. Wolfe ....................... 391 SETI: THE MICROWAVE SEARCH PROBLEM AND THE NASA SKY SURVEY APPROACH, Michael J. Klein and Samuel Gulkis ........................ 397 AN ANALYSIS OF THE ELEMENTS OF AN ALL SKY SURVEY, Edward T. Olsen, Anatoly Lokshin, and Samuel Gulkis .................................. 405 OPTIMUM SEARCH STRATEGY FOR RANDOMLY DISTRIBUTED CW TRANSMITTERS, Samuel Gulkis ........................................ .411 A MILKY WAY SEARCH STRATEGY FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE, Woodruff T. Sullivan, III, and Kenneth·J. Mighell ................... 419 THE SERENDIP II DESIGN, Dan Werthimer, Jill Tarter, Stuart Bowyer ... 421 NEW 45M RADIO TELESCOPE AND FOURIER-TRANSFORM TYPE SPECTROMETER AT NOBEYAMA RADIO OBSERVATORY, Hisashi Hirabayashi ..................... 425 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi SECTION VII. THE FERMI PARADOX AND ALTERNATIVE SEARCH STRATEGIES ... 435 INTRODUCTION, The Editor ............................................ 437 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SPACE COLONIZATION ENTERPRISES, Frank D. Drake ...................................................... 443 ON THE QUESTION OF INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL, John H. Wolfe ............... 449 EXPONENTIAL EXPANSION: GALACTIC DESTINY OR TECHNOLOGICAL HUBRIS?, Ben R. Finney ....................................................... 455 WHERE ARE THEY? IMPLICATIONS OF ANCIENT AND FUTURE MIGRATIONS, Eric M. Jones ....................................................... 465 GALACTIC COLONIZATION AND COMPETITION IN A YOUNG GALACTIC DISK, Edwin L. Turner ..................................................... 477 EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE: WHERE IS EVERYBODY?, John A. BalL .. .483 FERMI QUESTION, FERMI PARADOX: ONE HIT, ONE OUT, Char les L. Seeger ................................................... 487 ON A COSMIC ALPHABET, D. Hoang-Binh ................................. 493 ON THE INEVITABILITY AND THE POSSIBLE STRUCTURES OF SUPERCIVILIZATIONS, Nikolai S. Kardashev ......' ...................... 497 AN INFRARED SEARCH IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AS PART OF A MORE FLEXIBLE SEARCH STRATEGY, Michael D. Papagiannis .................... 505 SECTION VIII. SUMMARIES, COMMENTS AND CONCLUSIONS ................... 513 INTRODUCTION, The Editor ............................................ 515 SUMMARY OF SESSION I. fHE SEARCH FOR PLANETS AROUND OTHER STARS, George D. Gatewood .................................................. 523 SUMMARY OF SESSION II. PLANETARY, INTERPLANETARY AND INTERSTELLAR ORGANIC MATTER, William M. Irvine ................................... 527 SUMMARY OF SESSION III. UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION, John Billingham ..................................................... 529 QUESTIONMARKS REMAINING, George Marx ................................ 535 TWO ADDITIONAL COMMENTS, John A. Ball .............................. 539