Allen Telescope Array
Summary
The Allen Telescope Array, also called the ATA (and named after Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, who helped fund the project), is a radio telescope built at the Hat Creek Observatory in the California desert, outside of Berkeley. Ultimately it will have 350 antennas (or dishes), but at the moment, only 60 are in operation.
This is a new type of telescope – an array (large number) of small dishes, as opposed to single, very large dish. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, is the driving force behind the ATA.
The ATA has a very large field of view, and it records data very much faster than the typical telescope. It can see 200 square degrees at any given moment. Indeed, the ATA receives so much data that much of it is still waiting to be processed.
Keywords: Allen Telescope Array, SETI, Hat Creek Radio Observatory, searching for alien life, Professor Geoffrey Bower, Moore’s Law
