G oldstone A pple V alley R adio T elescope

GAVRT IS: ★ A partnership involving NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and The Lewis Center. ★ An opportunity for students and teachers to join scientists on an interactive science/education team. ★ An opportunity for students to control 34-meter radio telescopes that were part of NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Goldstone-Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) is located in the Mojave Desert, 40 miles north of Barstow in the area of the Fort Irwin military base. The telescopes we use are 34 meter diameter dishes that had been used by NASA to communicate with robotic space probes for over 30 years.

In 1994, NASA decided to decommission DSS-12,our first radio telescope, so Mr. Piercy, along with the help of other professionals, had a vision for obtaining the radio telescope to be used by students everywhere to experience “real” science. He “thought” he would be able to pick it up in his truck. Little did he know that it is a 850,000 lb., 10 story high structure.

Radio Astronomy is just like optical astronomy except that a radio telescope “sees” radio waves, while an optical telescope sees ordinary light. Examples of “radio” in everyday use: Mobile Phone Microwave Ovens Computer Wireless GPS Position Finding

PAST GAVRT MISSIONS:  CASSINI – HUYGENS  URANUS CAMPAIGN  MARS GSSR –Rover landing site

LCROSS – MOON MISSION GAVRT students world-wide participated in observing LCROSS crash into the moon to confirm the presence of water.

Current Missions: JUPITER QUEST Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System. By “taking Jupiter’s temperature” we can gather data to help solve it’s many planet mysteries. ( For this mission, go to slides )

JUNO MISSION: Launched in August 2011, it will arrive to orbit Jupiter In GAVRT will provide data from past missions, as well as observations when Juno arrives at Jupiter.

Students looking for Radio Signals from Life in Outer Space. Join Dr. Steve Levin in scanning the celestial sky in search of radio signals from alien civilizations! ( for this mission, go to slides ) SETI: SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE

BLACK HOLE PATROL! Scientists, such as Dr. Jauncey of Australia, study quasars to accumulate data on how they flunctuate or change over time. By studying the radio emissions they give off, it’s like looking back into time as to how the Universe was formed. (for this mission, go to slides # )

If your eyes could see radio waves, Jupiter would look like this:

With our radio telescope, this is what we see: POWER POWER "ON SOURCE" BACKGROUND POWER POINTING OFFSET (DEGREES) Scanning the telescope across Jupiter

“baseline” With our radio telescope, this is what we see: see: POWER POWER "ON SOURCE" BACKGROUND POWER POINTING OFFSET (DEGREES) Scanning the telescope across Jupiter “baseline”

Spacecraft tracks Education and Science Students contribute to Juno science - Modeling the radiation environment - Providing context for Microwave Radiometer data Juno science lessons (in and out of the classroom) Juno scientists participate in GAVRT teacher training Juno scientists in the (GAVRT) classroom Future plans (Junocam) The Juno/GAVRT Connection

page. GAVRT data help us understand Jupiter’s radiation belts Synchrotron Beaming Curve (GAVRT Data)

18 GAVRT data provide context

Suppose every star has planets. Suppose life develops in every planetary system. Suppose an intelligent civilization develops everywhere there’s life. Suppose every intelligent civilization sends radio signals towards us. Suppose the average time from planet formation to radio signals is a billion years. Suppose the average civilization keeps sending radio signals for 1000 years. Then we would still have to look at a million stars to find one signal ! There are roughly 100 billion stars in our Galaxy, so “one in a million” should happen 100,000 times ! The Bad News The Good News

We want to survey a lot of stars ! We want to cover a lot of different frequencies. We want to look for the weakest signals we can reliably see. We want to make progress within a few years. We can’t afford to get swamped by our own radio interference. We want to look at each star many times. Survey the galactic plane (where most of the stars are). Cover hundreds of millions of frequencies all at once. Use a big telescope, with a sensitive receiver. Keep the telescope constantly moving. Students identify candidates and reject the radio interference. Simple, repetitive scans, chosen by the students and teachers. Goals Plan

The Skyframe: A SETI Racetrack The telescope scans a patch of sky by steadily following this pattern. The telescope “sees” a spot on the sky which is bigger than the line spacing, so a real signal could more than once, with just the right timing.

The Waterfall Plot Vertical lines are interference. Bright dots are candidates.

You will: Pick a patch of sky (“skyframe”) to observe Run the telescope and make it scan your skyframe Use a waterfall plot to reject interference signals Look for candidates which just might be real signals from intelligent aliens Send us your list of candidates and interferers, and tells us what to improve for next time Compare candidate reports to see if any candidates showed up twice in the same skyframe.

SETI ANALYSIS Date School Teacher DOY Local time starts Filename Frame number Galactic coordinates:Latitude Longitude Center Frequency (MHz) 8430 A. Interference (RFI) data Number Start Freq.End Freq.Start timeEnd time Comments (MHz) (sec) B. Possible Instrumental noise or Interference Number Start Freq.End Freq.Start timeEnd time Comments (MHz) (sec) C. Candidates Number Start Freq.End Freq.Start timeEnd timePower (aprox) Comments (MHz) (sec) (dB)

SETI ANALYSIS Date5/24/13SchoolSt. Mary's School TeacherHolly Bensel DOY144Local time starts18:17 Filenamespc 00511_ _ Frame number: Galactic coordinates: Latitude Longitude 1Interference (RFI) data Number Start Freq.End Freq.Start timeEnd time Comments (MHz) (sec) too long on too long on too long on too long on 5 2Possible Instrumental noise or Interference Number Start Freq.End Freq.Start timeEnd time Comments (MHz) (sec) Candidates Number Start Freq.End Freq.Start timeEnd timePower (aprox) Comments (MHz) (sec) (dB) color scale it is about a color scale looks white color scale looks yellow color scale it is about a color scale it is about a

Black Hole Patrol Students will measure how quasars change. As part of the Black Hole Patrol, you will measure the radio intensity of a sample of quasars. The Black Hole patrol will measure the same set of quasars every week for a year, to watch how they vary. We will publish the results as a scientific paper in an astronomy journal. BLACK HOLE PATROL (Formerly QVS Mission)