The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is a 64-metre fully steerable single-dish radio telescope located near San Basilio, Sardinia, Italy, operated by Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). It is equipped with high-frequency receivers reaching up to ~115 GHz, making it suited to radio astronomy well above the traditional SETI L-band.
Significance for technosignature searches
- Site of the first high-frequency (6 GHz + 18 GHz) radio technosignature survey, reported by Manunza et al. (2025). The 18 GHz portion was the first-ever SETI search attempted at that frequency. The 36-hour survey of the Galactic Center and 72 TESS targets returned a null result and set an EIRP limit of 1.8×10¹⁹ W. See src-sardinia-technosignature-search-2026-05.
- The survey was led by an Italian team but included several Breakthrough Listen-affiliated co-authors (vishal-gajjar, steve-croft, Andrew Siemion, Matt Lebofsky, David MacMahon), extending the BL methodology to a new dish and higher frequencies.