Opening Day for ATA

Today, the Allen Telescope Array will see first light-- err, hear first radio crackle-- as Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft and major financial force behind the ATA, will push the button that brings the first 42 radio telescopes online. The ATA will be the key tool in the largest SETI research program yet undertaken.

The 42 telescopes Allen will activate are only the first installment of an array that will finally contain 350 individual instruments. The real power of the installation, though, is not the number of individual telescopes. Rather, it's the fact that those telescopes will be used together to essentially create one huge radio telescope. Though constructed to take SETI research to the next level, the ATA will also be capable of groundbreaking work in radio astronomy.

Located 300 miles northeast of San Francisco in California's Hat Creek Valley, the Array is being built in a remote, mountainous area where the radio sky is fairly quiet. Dr, Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute has speculated we could well find our first radio signal from an alien civilization by 2025. Starting today, the chances of that happening are increasing.