Pranav Premnath is a research assistant at the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA). Located at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California, the ATA is comprised of 42 6-meter dishes with specialized hardware developed to detect radio signals that could originate from technologically advanced civilizations beyond Earth.

Premnath is using the ATA to survey of 300 stars identified by the Research Consortium of Nearby Stars (RECONS). These stars are considered close to Earth, within 10 parsecs or about 30 lightyears of Earth. Statistically, all these stars should have at least one planet in their orbit, and approximately 10% should include a world that could be habitable.

The ATA will observe each target in the survey will be observed multiple times, taking advantage of the ATA’s bandwidth capabilities to listen across 1-12 GHz for any possible technosignature.

Premnath hasn’t detected any signals yet, but the work is ongoing. Once this survey is completed, the ATA team may expand the search to include stars within 20 or even 30 parsecs of Earth.