The SETI Institute and UC Berkeley announce phased
construction plan of the Allen Telescope Array
Three years of successful research and development expedites
scientific investigation by years
Investor and
philanthropist Paul G. Allen has committed $13.5 million to support the
construction of the first and second phases of the Allen Telescope
Array (the ATA-32 and ATA-206), the world’s newest multiple use radio
telescope array. The ATA will eventually consist of 350 – 6.1-meter
dishes (ATA-350), when construction is completed late in the decade.
The announcement was made today by Thomas Pierson, chief executive
officer for the SETI Institute, a leading astrobiology
institution with the mission of exploring the origin, nature
and prevalence of life in the universe. The ATA is a partnership
between the SETI Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory of the
University of California, Berkeley (RAL).
Today’s announcement follows the successful completion of a
three-year research and development phase which was originally funded
by an $11.5 million gift from the Allen Foundation. The R & D proved
that one of the primary advantages of the array design – its scalability –
makes it possible for the ATA to conduct scientific investigations as soon as
the first 32 dishes are installed.
Pierson also announced that the ATA-32 is scheduled to begin conducting
scientific investigations by the end of 2004, significantly earlier than the
350 element array can be completed.
The ATA will be a general-purpose radio telescope that will provide
fundamentally new measurements and insights into the density of the very
early universe, the formation of stars, the magnetic fields in the
interstellar medium, and a host of other applications of deep interest to
astronomers. At the same time, this 21st Century radio telescope will also
have the capability to search for possible signals from technologically
advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy.
“I am very excited to be supporting one of the world’s most visionary
efforts to seek basic answers to some of the fundamental question about our
universe and what other civilizations may exist elsewhere,”
said Paul G. Allen, primary funder of the ATA. “I am a big proponent of
leveraging revolutionary technology and design and applying it to
important problems in science. The developments taking place with this new
instrument will not only enables us to realize a lot of bang for our research
and development buck, but it will also change the landscape of how
telescopes will be built in the future. An instrument of this magnitude,
which will result in the expansion of our understanding of how the
universe was formed, and how it has evolved, and our place therein, is
the reason I am the primary supporter of its development, design and
construction.”
Allen’s $13.5 million funding, structured as a challenge grant, will
allow construction and operation of the first phase of 32-dishes by the
end of the year. It will also support construction of the second phase
of 174 additional dishes (the ATA-206), which is contingent upon
fulfilling the Foundations’ challenge grant, in response to which the
Institute will raise $16 million in additional support.
“It is especially thrilling to see the Allen Telescope Array
approach its first significant milestone,” said SETI Institute CEO Tom
Pierson. “We are grateful for the additional support from the Allen
Foundation that is making this new facility – and further
discovery – possible. Mr. Allen and his Foundation have
set the bar high. Mr. Allen’s support of this worthwhile project,
when matched by other supporters of radio astronomy and SETI, will
quickly bring this project to fruition.”
The ATA is the result of a multi-faceted private-public partnership between
the SETI Institute and the RAL. It differs in practice,
appearance, and cost from traditional radio telescopes currently in use. When
completed, the ATA-350 will be among the world’s largest and fastest
observing instruments.
Rather than a single enormous dish or several large dishes,
the ATA will be constructed using hundreds of specially produced small
dishes. The telescope will incorporate innovative technologies and modern,
miniaturized electronics in concert with increasingly affordable computer
processing. These new technologies, combined with the ability to conduct
continuous observations, will increase SETI search speed by 300 times
over previous efforts and simultaneously allow astronomers to conduct
complex radio astronomy projects requiring long-term observations. And
the instrument will achieve these goals at one-fifth the cost of
traditional radio telescopes of comparable collecting area and complexity.
In its first phase, the ATA-32 will have more antennas than
any of the world’s other centimeter-wavelength radio telescopes. The
individual antennas will be linked by fiber optics. The fiber, power, and air
distribution systems will be installed in ten-antenna “nodes,” an
efficient way to maintain the cool operating temperature required by the
equipment.
The ATA-32 will observe in the direction of the galactic
anti-center to detect primordial deuterium, study dark matter in nearby
dwarf galaxies, generate maps of polyatomic molecules in molecular clouds,
and conduct a SETI survey of the inner galaxy.
“I am eager to begin observing on the ATA,” commented Dr. Jill C. Tarter,
ATA project leader and Director of the Center for SETI Research at the
Institute. “Conducting observations 24/7 is a dream come
true for any astronomer, and it is particularly exciting for the
Institute’s astronomers, who have been constrained by limited time on
other large centimeter wavelength telescopes. Finally, our tools are becoming
commensurate with the size of our task.”
Scientists believe that radio waves, such as those commonly produced by a
variety of technologies on Earth and traveling at light-speed through
interstellar space, may offer the easiest way to detect evidence of a
technologically sophisticated civilization elsewhere in the galaxy. With
sufficient collecting area, it is possible to detect signals from a distant
technology that are no more powerful than those produced on Earth today.
Dr. Leo Blitz, professor of astronomy and director of the Radio Astronomy
Laboratory at UC Berkley said, “The ATA will revolutionize radio astronomy,
making it possible to provide answers to the two biggest questions in
astronomy: How did we get here? Are we alone?” Blitz went on to say, “The
ATA’s ability to make radio images over large swaths of sky, to make
measurements over an unprecedented range of radio wavelengths, and its
ability to do several kinds of observations at once, provide a power and
flexibility that will allow astronomers to address whole areas of astronomy
that are currently inaccessible. Because of the telescope’s unique
capabilities, I expect that we’ll discover things we don’t even know are out
there.”
Construction of the ATA is underway at the Hat Creek Observatory, 290 miles
northeast of San Francisco on a site operated by the RAL. The Hat Creek
Observatory is located in an area that is ‘radio quiet,’
thereby reducing the level of interfering signals from man-made sources.
About Dr. Jill C. Tarter
Dr. Jill C. Tarter, director of SETI Research at the Institute, heads the
ATA project. Tarter received her undergraduate degree in Engineering
Physics from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the
University of California at Berkeley, where her major field of study was
theoretical high-energy astrophysics. As a graduate student
at Berkeley in the early-70s, she became involved in the beginning stages
of a small search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations using
the Hat Creek Observatory’s 85-foot telescope. That project, SERENDIP,
which continues today, provided a natural introduction to the newly formed
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Program Office at
NASA’s Ames Research Center, where Dr. Tarter eventually pursued an NRC Resident
Associateship.
Beginning in 1984, Tarter served as a Principal Investigator for the
non-profit SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, and as Project Scientist for
NASA’s High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS), until its termination by
Congress in October 1993. She was named the initiating holder of the
Institute’s Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research in 1998.
About Dr. Leo Blitz
Leo Blitz is a Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Radio Astronomy
Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests
focus mainly on how galaxies, including the Milky Way, form and evolve and
how interstellar gas within galaxies is converted into stars, such as the
Sun. His main work is on the earliest stages of star formation and the
dynamics, structure, and evolution of the Milky Way and other galaxies.
In one current project, Blitz studies the nature of dark
matter on galactic scales, particularly in dwarf galaxies and in the outer
parts of the Milky Way. He’s also working on how the diffuse interstellar
medium generates star-forming giant molecular clouds in different
environments, and is trying to unravel the basic physics of star
formation on galactic scales. Of particular interest is the nature of
the High Velocity Clouds of atomic hydrogen which may be gas left over
from the formation of the Milky Way.
Funding the ATA and the SETI Institute
Over the course of the next three years, through a comprehensive campaign
called The Quest, the Institute will raise $62 million to support the completion
of the ATA-350, and to provide for the ongoing endeavors of its engineers
and scientists and educators pursuing all aspects of astrobiology. “It is an
ambitious campaign that matches the extraordinary reach of the
Institute’s vision,” said Institute CEO Tom Pierson.
Opportunities abound for donors to participate in the building of the
telescope, endowing research chairs, supporting laboratory and field
research, and in assisting the launch of K-12 curriculum
designed to build upon children’s natural enthusiasm for astronomy, finding
extraterrestrial life, and the wonders of science. “The Quest is an
international campaign befitting the global importance of the science
in which the SETI Institute and the University of California, Berkeley
engage,” Pierson added.
About The SETI Institute
The not-for-profit SETI Institute, founded in 1984, conducts a broad range
of astrobiology research. Institute projects include the world’s most
comprehensive work in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and a
wide variety of research and education programs related to the search for
life beyond Earth. On March 5, 2004, the Institute completed Project
Phoenix at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The nine-year project
searched more than 750 nearby stars, seeking evidence of radio signals from
technologically advanced civilizations. The Institute employs over 100
people, in a variety of fields, including science and technology aspects
of astronomy and the planetary sciences, chemical evolution, the origin of
life, and biological evolution. Among its staff and Board, the Institute
counts two Nobel Prize winners, five members of the National Academy of
Sciences, two members of the National Academy of Engineering, a MacArthur
Fellow, two fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and four
members of the International Academy of Astronautics.
The Institute also has scores of scientists, engineers, and researchers
About the Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
Created in 1958, UC Berkeley’s Radio Astronomy Laboratory (RAL) fosters
About Paul G. Allen
Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen creates and advances world-class
Learn more about Allen online at www.vulcan.com.
For further information or to make a donation to the ATA,
involved in a variety of current and future NASA projects aimed at exploring the
solar system, with a particular focus on understanding the origin and nature of
life. Among these projects is the current Mars Exploration Rovers
mission, in which several Institute scientists are involved. For more
information about the SETI Institute visit: www.seti.org
interdisciplinary research in radio astronomy, mainly through its
observatory at Hat Creek. The Hat Creek observatory currently hosts the BIMA
array, a state-of-the-art array of ten radio telescopes that operate at
millimeter wavelengths, one of only four such facilities in the world. The
array produces images of cosmic radio sources, allowing researchers to study
galaxy and star formation, galaxy evolution, and the distribution of dark
matter, protostars, comets, and other features of our universe. In 1998,
the RAL entered into an agreement with the SETI Institute to jointly design,
build, and operate the ATA. The BIMA telescopes will soon be moved to a
site in the Inyo Mountains, 11 miles northeast of Big Pine, Calif., and
combined with the six telescopes of Caltech’s OVRO array to form a new, more
powerful instrument for millimeter wavelength astronomy known as CARMA.
projects and high-impact initiatives that change and improve the way people
live, learn, work and experience the world through arts, education,
entertainment, sports, business and technology. He co-founded Microsoft with
Bill Gates in 1976, remained the company’s chief technologist until he left
Microsoft in 1983, is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., and chairman
of Charter Communications. In addition, Allen’s multibillion dollar
investment portfolio includes large stakes in DreamWorks SKG, Oxygen Media
and more than 50 other technology, media and content companies. Allen also
owns the Seattle Seahawks NFL and Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchises.
Named one of the top 15 philanthropists in America, Allen
gives back to the community through the six Paul G. Allen Foundations, which
strengthen communities and support vulnerable populations in the areas
of arts, health and human services, medical research and technology in
education. Allen is also founder of Experience Music Project, Seattle’s
critically acclaimed interactive music museum, The Allen Institute for Brain
Science, the forthcoming Science Fiction Museum (opening summer 2004),
and Vulcan Productions, the independent film production company behind
Todd Haynes’ “Far From Heaven.” The company also produced the 2001
“Evolution” series on PBS, and the critically acclaimed seven-part
series “The Blues”, executive produced by Martin Scorsese in conjunction
with Allen and Jody Patton.
please contact The
SETI Institute at 650.961.6633 or email: membership@seti.org
