Will E.T. be phoning us back?

Gillian Armstrong

The search for extraterristrial existence is one that has fascinated humans for years. Television programs like The Outer Limits, The X-Files and The Twilight Zone capitalised on the human desire to disocver and embrace the unexplained phenomena which ply our universe.

Paul G Allen, a founder member of Microsoft and the major investor in the Allen Astonomy Telescope, is making it cheap and possible for the search to continue. The Allen telescope consists of 350 antennae, each of which are about 20 feet in diameter. The radio antennae are then combined as if they were all one dish, and will allow the scientists to cost-effectively and efficiently monitor and map huge areas of the galaxy.

Early predictions envision that the telescope should be able to recieve information from almost 500 light years away and include almost a million stars. Considering there are around 200 billion stars in the galaxy, and a large number of them have planets, estimates as to the number of intelligent civilizations range from one (or in my discouraged view of humanity, none) into millions. It is hoped that this will greatly increase the potential to search for answers to the question of extraterristial life, and is the first telescope of its kind specifically designed for extraterristrial quest.

The idea for the dish was formulated some 12 years ago at the Radio Astonomy Laboratory at the University of California. It uses inexpensive satellite dish technology and combines elements of digital signal processing and radio astonomy. Rather than merely being a receptor for alien communication, the telescope will also provide invaluable research possibilities in the field of satellite transmission and digital communication. Although only 42 of the antennae are in operation today, even the partial operation of the telescope is of ground-breaking technology.

Dr Blitz, who is the director of the laboratory, claims that the telescope is already as fast and far more inexpensive to run than many other of the existing telescopes. Because of the speed that the various antennae provide information, it will be possible to recieve the radio waves created when black holes collide, and the vast range of space that the antennae can search will allow researchers to study the areas of gas in the galaxy devoid of stars (or ‘dark galaxies’).

It may yet be possible to determine intelligent life somewhere in the galaxy...

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