Funds for the telescope starts the hunt for aliens

In April, the closing for the Allen Telescope Array lack of funding, the largest in the world dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial signals. Now, thanks to two thousand private donations, the antennas will resume working. And while waiting for the future exploration of new benefactors goes for home computers

HUMANITY back to peek through the keyhole of the universe's largest, closed four months ago because of the economic crisis. The SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), managed by the University of Berkeley has raised money for almost two thousand donors to reopen the Allen Telescope Array in California, the largest observation point on the planet dedicated to collecting radio signals coming in from deep space in search of alien life, closed in April.

The project. The initiative was founded in 2001 by co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen, as well as giving the name of the plant, had secured nearly 12 million euros to finance the project. A complex network of 350 antennas, unparalleled in the world, committed 24 to 24 hours of probing the cosmos in search of audio signals from the universe. Money, of course, a grant. Because the telescope, since 2007, when it entered into service, have registered only a long, interminable silence.

An effort now, ten years after the project is no longer sustainable. Too those 3 million needed to keep alive the structure, even in times when government programs suffer heavy reductions in resources, as evidenced by the recent retirement of the Shuttle 1. So, in April, admitting: "It 's frustrating to know thatthat there are worlds in the universe that could harbor life forms and we can not find them, "he said, referring all'esurimento resources available.

Over two thousand donations. He thought then a consortium of private investors to revive the project. These include the science fiction writer Larry Niven, astronaut Bill Anders and the actress Jodie Foster, who in 1997 had played just a scientist of the SETI program to deal with a mysterious signal from outer space in the movie 'Contact'.

"The Allen Telescope - Oscar winner said his reasons for giving - could turn science fiction into science, but only if it is kept in business."

 At 45 days from the fundraising, almost 200 thousand U.S. dollars have been collected, the result of nearly two thousand private donations, enough to restart the project and keep it at least until year-end and then secure another five months to find new benefactors .

Exploring home. Meanwhile, the University of Berkeley has also developed - since 1999 - a program to continue research and managed to contain costs. The project, SETI @ home 2, is to network the computers of users 'volunteers' to process the observation data of the Arecibo telescope, the largest satellite in the world, nestled in the heart of the tropical forest of the island of Puerto Rico.

So, using the computing power of hundreds of thousands of PCs around the world, even without investment millionaires can continue listening to the universe. Also if anyone has anything to say.

Source repubblica.it