Breakthrough Listen (BL) is a 10 year initiative to search for signatures of technologically capable life beyond Earth via radio and optical observations of the local universe. A core part of the BL program is a comprehensive survey of 1702 nearby stars at radio wavelengths (1–10 GHz). Here, we report on observations with the 64 m CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia, and the 100 m Robert C. Byrd Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, USA. Over 2016 January to 2019 March, a sample of 1138 stars was observed at Green Bank using the 1.10–1.90 GHz and 1.80–2.80 GHz receivers, and 189 stars were observed with Parkes over 2.60–3.45 GHz. We searched these data for the presence of engineered signals with Doppler-acceleration drift rates between ±4 Hz s⁻¹. Here, we detail our data analysis techniques and provide examples of detected events. After excluding events with characteristics consistent with terrestrial radio interference, we are left with zero candidates. That is, we find no evidence of putative radio transmitters above W, and W for Green Bank and Parkes observations, respectively. These observations constitute the most comprehensive search over 1.10–3.45 GHz for technosignatures to date. All data products, totaling ∼219 TB, are available for download as part of the first BL data release (DR1), as described in a companion paper.

A radio view into Jupiter's atmosphere: Jupiter's atmosphere is a complex system of belts, layers, storms, and cloud systems. de Pater et al. used Earth-bound radio observations to peer beneath its surface. Previous radio studies have been limited to average properties at each latitude, but the new observations allow a full two-dimensional view. This can be related to features (such as storms) seen in visible or infrared images. The results aid our understanding of gas giant atmospheres and will provide important context for the Juno spacecraft that arrives at Jupiter in July 2016. Science , this issue p. 1198

A line of sight toward the Galactic Center (GC) offers the largest number of potentially habitable systems of any direction in the sky. The Breakthrough Listen program is undertaking the most sensitive and deepest targeted SETI surveys toward the GC. Here, we outline our observing strategies with Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and Parkes telescope to conduct 600 hr of deep observations across 0.7–93 GHz. We report preliminary results from our survey for extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) beacons across 1–8 GHz with 7.0 and 11.2 hr of observations with Parkes and GBT, respectively. With our narrowband drifting signal search, we were able to place meaningful constraints on ETI transmitters across 1–4 GHz and 3.9–8 GHz with EIRP limits of ≥4 × 10¹⁸ W among 60 million stars and ≥5 × 10¹⁷ W among half a million stars, respectively. For the first time, we were able to constrain the existence of artificially dispersed transient signals across 3.9–8 GHz with EIRP ≥1 × 10¹⁴ W/Hz with a repetition period ≤4.3 hr. We also searched our 11.2 hr of deep observations of the GC and its surrounding region for Fast Radio Burst–like magnetars with the DM up to 5000 pc cm⁻³ with maximum pulse widths up to 90 ms at 6 GHz. We detected several hundred transient bursts from SGR J1745−2900, but did not detect any new transient bursts with the peak luminosity limit across our observed band of ≥10³¹ erg s⁻¹ and burst rate of ≥0.23 burst hr⁻¹. These limits are comparable to bright transient emission seen from other Galactic radio-loud magnetars, constraining their presence at the GC.