Allen Telescope Array, operated by The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute(SETI) with a joint efforts from University of California-Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Lab has suspended operations due to the lack of funding. These sophisticated radio telescopes in California were used to scan the heavens for extraterrestrial signals and the project had been funded largely by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who donated more than $25 million to the project.
The project was set on hold a week ago due to state budget crisis and reduced federal dollars. As per SETI officials, the operations is expected to resume in 2013 when the next round of funding goes into effect. SETI since last month has been soliciting donations to fund the Allen project which is around $5 million.
The SETI Institute is based in Mountain View, in California's Silicon Valley. According to its website it employs over 150 scientists, educators and support staff, and gets most of its funding from private donations and non-governmental grants. And the research at the institute is anchored by two centers: The Center for SETI Research, which seeks evidence of extraterrestrial life by looking for some signature of its technology; and the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, which examines the origin, evolution and distribution of life forms on Earth and beyond.
The idea for constructing the Allen Telescope Array was conceived in 1997. Four years later, Allen agreed to fund the venture and construction of the initial 42 antennas, located in Northern California's rural Cascade Mountains. SETI has said it plans to eventually grow the number of dishes to 350. The array's 20-foot-wide telescopes, spread across several acres, don't send messages into space but scan the cosmos for signals of extraterrestrial origin. Unlike previously existing radio telescopes, which scan the sky for limited periods, the Allen Telescope Array probed the universe round the clock. Each of the 42 dishes is aimed at a different area of the sky, collecting reams of data that are being studied by computers for unusual patterns.
Following this lack of funding, SETI is hibernating this project by cutting off a number of staffs and operating with only those who are needed for maintaining the devices through this hibernation period. This long pause has put an end to the search for alien life.
The project was set on hold a week ago due to state budget crisis and reduced federal dollars. As per SETI officials, the operations is expected to resume in 2013 when the next round of funding goes into effect. SETI since last month has been soliciting donations to fund the Allen project which is around $5 million.
The SETI Institute is based in Mountain View, in California's Silicon Valley. According to its website it employs over 150 scientists, educators and support staff, and gets most of its funding from private donations and non-governmental grants. And the research at the institute is anchored by two centers: The Center for SETI Research, which seeks evidence of extraterrestrial life by looking for some signature of its technology; and the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, which examines the origin, evolution and distribution of life forms on Earth and beyond.
The idea for constructing the Allen Telescope Array was conceived in 1997. Four years later, Allen agreed to fund the venture and construction of the initial 42 antennas, located in Northern California's rural Cascade Mountains. SETI has said it plans to eventually grow the number of dishes to 350. The array's 20-foot-wide telescopes, spread across several acres, don't send messages into space but scan the cosmos for signals of extraterrestrial origin. Unlike previously existing radio telescopes, which scan the sky for limited periods, the Allen Telescope Array probed the universe round the clock. Each of the 42 dishes is aimed at a different area of the sky, collecting reams of data that are being studied by computers for unusual patterns.
Following this lack of funding, SETI is hibernating this project by cutting off a number of staffs and operating with only those who are needed for maintaining the devices through this hibernation period. This long pause has put an end to the search for alien life.
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