The Square Kilometer Array

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The Square Kilometer Array

• Life Among The Stars
• A Level 0 Science Case With Appeal

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Life Among the Stars

• NASA Mission statement
• To Improve life on Earth
• To extend it to there
• To find life elsewhere
• NSF LEXEN program
• Kepler and TPF/Darwin
• Terrestrial planets will be compelling
• Study them in everyway possible
• They may not be close

Are we alone?
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Interstellar Glycine and You?

• Is there a direct connection between the
  biological molecules found in GMCs and life on
  Earth or Life elsewhere?
• Does the chemistry get reset?
• UV in ISM and protostellar nebula
• Accretion shock surrounding disk
• Incorporation/ehancement in parent bodies
• Does it matter?
• Formation on dust ? reformation on dust in
  protoplanetary disk
• Does delivery system provide intact molecules?

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Requirements for SKA

• Would like sub-AU resolution across protostellar
  nebulae and prototoplanetary disks
• At Taurus 1 AU 6 mas
  1000 AU 6 arc sec
• Cm wavelength J1-0 transitions for large
  biomolecules
• Exact sensitivity requirements need some help
  from chemists and theorists
• Glycine N/N(H2) 1.5x10-9 (Orion)
  2 x 10-10 (SgrB2 W51)
• Cyanopolyynes N/N(H2) 10-9 10-11

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Detection of Leakage Signals
 
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The Key Is A Large Target List
(Assuming 6-m dish)
Frequency in GHz
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Requirements for SKA

• Prefer largest PFOV consistent with data
  processing and data transport
• Multiple pencil beams
• Mulitiple frequency tunings
• Within any PFOV, frequency substitutes for
  targets
• Largest PFOV for maximum Aeff
• Fewest number of station beams formed
• Blind surveys benefit from correlator with
  largest possible number of high resolution
  channels
• Recirculation to do better than Nchan X ?f
  const.