Allen Telescope Array

Allen Telescope Array

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA-42), October 11, 2007.
Alternative names	ATA
Named after	Paul Allen
Part of	Hat Creek Radio Observatory
Location(s)	California, Pacific States Region
Coordinates	40°49′04″N 121°28′24″W / 40.8178°N 121.4733°W / 40.8178; -121.4733
Organization	Radio Astronomy Laboratory SETI Institute
Wavelength	60, 2.7 cm (500, 11,100 MHz)
Telescope style	Gregorian telescope radio interferometer
Number of telescopes	42
Diameter	6.1 m (20 ft 0 in)
Secondary diameter	2.4 m (7 ft 10 in)
Collecting area	1,227 m2 (13,210 sq ft)
Website	www.seti.org/ata
Location of Allen Telescope Array
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The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) was developed by the SETI Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory (RAL) at the University of California, Berkeley to construct a radio interferometer that is dedicated to radio astronomy observations. At the same time, it is also used for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.^[1][2]

The ATA is at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, 290 miles (470 km) northeast of San Francisco, California. The goal is to have 350 antennas.^[3] To start, 42 antennas (ATA-42) were put to work on 11 October 2007.^[4][5] However, a lack of money stopped operations in April 2011.^[6][7] In August 2011, ATA got short-term funding.^[8] In 2012 UC Berkeley quit the project.

It is named after Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. Its old name was the One Hectare Telescope (1hT).

1. ↑ Daniel Terdiman (12 December 2008). "SETI's large-scale telescope scans the skies". CNET News. Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
2. ↑ John Johnson, Jr. (1 June 2008). "Aliens get a new switchboard: a SETI radio telescope in Northern California". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
3. ↑ "When Will We Find the Extraterrestrials?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-15. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
4. ↑ Dennis Overbye (11 October 2007). "Stretching the Search for Signs of Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
5. ↑ Staff writers (12 October 2007). "Skies to be swept for alien life". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
6. ↑ Hardy, Michael. "SETI stops listening for alien signals -". FCW. Archived from the original on 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
7. ↑ "Status of the Allen Telescope Array" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
8. ↑ Cook, John (7 August 2011). "Search for ET continues as Paul Allen-backed telescope hits short-term funding goal". Geekwire. Retrieved 2011-08-30.

• Official site at seti.org Archived 2008-12-19 at the Wayback Machine
• Radio Astronomy Laboratory's ATA site Archived 2006-09-02 at the Wayback Machine
• The Search Continues with the Allen Telescope Array. Mountain View, CA: SETI Institute. March 25, 2004.
• Radio Astronomy Laboratory, Univ of Cal, Berkeley: NSF proposal, June 15, 2005.