Telescope to search for life in space

A new state-of-the-art radio telescope began operating in northern California to search for intelligent life in space. The telescope is still under development but when completed it will be able to study more stars in two years than scientists have been able to examine in the past 45 years.

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) exists of 350 or more small silver aluminum dishes spread across 90 aces. It is named after its most generous donor, Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen.

The ATA uses many basic off-the-shelve parts making it a rather cheap telescope. The telescope costs about $35 million while large telescopes might cost $200 million to build.