Hunt for ET starts in California

[DesertFox]

The most far-reaching search for extra-terrestrial life ever undertaken began Thursday as an array of radio telescopes that will trawl deepest space were activated in northern California.

A total of 42 radio dishes started collecting scientific data from the furthest reaches of the universe, part of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Hat Creek, around 270 miles (432 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

The dishes will be part of an eventual army of telescopes numbering around 350 that are being deployed to help advance radio astronomy, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and the University of California, Berkeley said in a statement.

"The ATA's technical capabilities exponentially increase our ability to search for intelligent signals, and may lead to the discovery of thinking beings elsewhere in the universe," said astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.

"It is the first major telescope in the world built specifically for undertaking a search for extraterrestrial intelligence," he added.

More (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071011/sc_afp/ussciencealiens_071011193748;_ylt=AtJLrIO5CwmQniwO R_bKjqDYa7gF)

[DesertFox]

the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Hat Creek, around 270 miles (432 kilometers) north of San Francisco.If they really wanna find ET, they need only train their scopes south down the beltway a few hunnert miles. Hollywood's crawling with the critters.

[gnome]

I wonder if some of the data will be distributed to SETI@Home users?

[DoctorDoom]

The advantages of a steerable array over the SETI receiver at Arecibo are too numerous to mention, the major one being to lock onto and track an anomalous signal for extended periods.

Figuratively, it's equivalent to removing the roof after star-watching for years though a small hole in the roof.

[DoctorDoom]

I wonder if some of the data will be distributed to SETI@Home users?Most likely not. The equipment is far more sophisticated than what was available for handling Arecibo data, and there's ample computing power to process it pretty much in real time.

[DeclinetoState]

http://blog.case.edu/james.chang/2006/10/13/cindy_sheehan.jpg

They didn't have to look very far, either. Unfortunately, it turns out that such ET life is butt-ugly and not very intelligent.

[DoctorDoom]

She's no alien. But she might be one of their turds dropped here when they emptied their tanks during a sightseeing flight.