Maya Dollarhide of TechnologyReveiw.com writes: “A new radio telescope array has been developed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and the University of California at Berkeley that will shed some cosmic noise, and give scientists a better view of one million stars scattered throughout the universe.

A new radio telescope array has been developed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and the University of California at Berkeley that will shed some cosmic noise, and give scientists a better view of one million stars scattered throughout the universe.

Named after the principle initial donor of the project, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) consists of 350 20-foot antennas and will allow SETI scientists and radio astronomers to study stars twenty-four hours a day across multiple channels.

This new array — which gathers smaller telescopes in large bunches — will allow scientists to study more stars at one time than was previously possible with larger telescopes that focused on one, narrow region of space at any given time.

The Allen Foundation has already laid out $11.5 million, with the promise of another $13.5 million in the future. While that covers less than half of the $52 million price tag, the project is still under way. There are currently 32 antennas running in the Hat Creek region of Northern California and SETI hopes to have construction of the total array finished by 2007.”

Full article: A Universe of Sounds