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A Universe of Sounds

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is helping fund a SETI project that will distill space noise, better search for alien life, and help understand the cosmos.

By Maya Dollarhide

February 23, 2005

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A new radio telescope array has been developed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and the University of California at Berkeley that will shed some cosmic noise, and give scientists a better view of one million stars scattered throughout the universe.

A new radio telescope array has been developed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and the University of California at Berkeley that will shed some cosmic noise, and give scientists a better view of one million stars scattered throughout the universe.

Named after the principle initial donor of the project, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) consists of 350 20-foot antennas and will allow SETI scientists and radio astronomers to study stars twenty-four hours a day across multiple channels.

This new array -- which gathers smaller telescopes in large bunches --  will allow scientists to study more stars at one time than was previously possible with larger telescopes that focused on one, narrow region of space at any given time.

The Allen Foundation has already laid out $11.5 million, with the promise of another $13.5 million in the future. While that covers less than half of the $52 million price tag, the project is still under way. There are currently 32 antennas running in the Hat Creek region of Northern California and SETI hopes to have construction of the total array finished by 2007.

It gives us access to the sky to search deeper for fainter levels and broader types of signals, says SETI director Jill Tarter. Well be looking at more frequency with more sensitivity and sophistication.

The ATA's development comes on the heels of the news that NASA's most well-known telescope, Hubble, will be brought down in the near future due to budget constraints and resource reallocations that have forced the space agency to examine where it should spend its money.

Story continues below

That has turned attention back to earth-bound telescopes. Although SETI has only been around since1984, scientists have been using radio telescopes to learn more about the heavens since the 1940s.

Radio telescopes are comprised of three components. The most visible is the parabolic dish (called an antenna) that collects the faint radio signals from the cosmos. The next is a type of recording device -- nowadays, a digital memory disc -- and complex software used to collect, analyze and process the data.

Comments

  • the extraterrestrial message
      Dear Sirs!
    Please see the paper about UFO,s materials.
    Thank you.Sincerely,Henadzi Filipenka,teacher of
    materials. hfilipenk@rambler.ru
    --------------------


    Dear Sirs!The information, contained in the project is
    in my
    opinion
    the evidence of its extraterrestrial origin.

    Project
    of decoding of 'The Stormer Effect'

    The phenomenon is described by C.Stormer in his
    work 'The
    Problem of Aurora Borealis' in the chapter
    entitled 'The
    Echo of Short Waves, Which Comes Back in Many Seconds
    After
    The Main Signal'.

    In 1928 the radio- engineer Jorgen Hals from Bigder
    near Oslo
    informed C.Stormer about an odd radio echo received 3
    seconds after the cessation of the main signal;
    besides, an
    ordinary echo encircling the Earth within 1/7 of a
    second
    was received.

    In July Prof. Stormer spoke to Dr. Van-der-Paul in
    Andhoven
    and they decided to carry out experiments in autumn
    and send
    telegraphic signals in the form of undamped waves
    every 20
    seconds three dashes one after the other. On 11
    October 1928
    between 15.30 and 16.00, C.Stormer heard an
    echo 'beyond any
    doubt'; the signals lasted for 1,5- 2 seconds on
    undamped
    waves 31,4 meters long.

    Stormer and Hals recorded the intervals between the
    main
    signal and the mysterious echo:
    1) 15, 9, 4, 8, 13, 8, 12, 10, 9, 5, 8, 7, 6
    2) 12, 14, 14, 12, 8
    3) 12, 5, 8
    4) 12, 8, 5, 14, 14, 15, 12, 7, 5.5, 13, 8, 8, 8, 13,
    9,10,7,14,6,9,5

    5) 9

    Atmospheric disturbances were insignificant at that
    time.
    The frequency of echoes was equal to that of the main
    signal. C.Stormer explained the nature of echoes by
    reflection of radio waves from layers of particles
    ionised
    by the Sun. But!

    The Professor of the Stenford Electrotechnical
    University
    R.Bracewell suggested possibility of informational
    communication through space probes between more or less
    developed civilisations in space. From that point of
    view
    the information about decoding of Stormer series can be
    found in following journals:

    'Smena' No.2 Moscow 1966 , 'Astronautics and
    Aeronautics'
    No.5 USA 1973, 'Technika Molodezi' No.4 1974 and No.5
    1977
    Moscow, etc.

    The author of this work offers the following decoding:
    let
    the numbers in the series be replaced for chemical
    symbols
    of elements with corresponding nuclear charges:
    1) P F Be O Al O Mg Ne F B O N C
    2) Mg Si Si Mg O
    3) Mg B O
    4) Mg O B Si Si P Mg N B B Al O O O Al F Ne N Si C F B
    5) F

    It is easy to see that the second series is repeated
    at the
    beginning of the forth series with the only difference
    that
    in the forth series silicon is alloyed with boron and
    phosphorus, i.e. 'p-n transition' of a diode is
    created. The
    third series describes receipt of pure boron through
    action
    on boron anhydrite by magnesium:
    B2O3 and Mg = B ...

    The author of the above hypothesis wrote his degree
    paper on
    silicon carbide light-emitting diode, that is why the
    ending of the forth series is the most simple- it is a
    modern light-emitting diode. Silicon carbide is
    alloyed with
    nitrogen and boron with 'some participation' of
    fluorine.
    Approximately the same way diamond is alloyed with
    participation of fluorine in laboratories of 'other
    civilisations', as can be seen at the ending of the
    first
    series. In the middle of the forth series corundum,
    the base
    of ruby, is also alloyed with boron, nitrogen and
    fluorine.
    In the fifth series simply fluorine is educed as a
    useful
    but very aggressive gas. Inert neon seems to divide
    optoelectronic devices.

    In conclusion, some repeated applications should be
    noticed:
    fluorine favours in a way either diffusion of boron or
    electronic processes in forbidden zones of diamond,
    silicon
    carbamide; for some reason magnesium contacts are used.

    Now,MgB2 is supercoductor!!! (2001?)
    ===================================================
    ======
    In 1928 semi-conductor devices were not in use on
    Earth.
    It was made in Leningrad,1978.

    P.S.This paper is placed in Internet from 1998,please
    see at:
    http://www.belarus.net/discovery/filipenko/fil2.htm

    (in English)
    ===================================================
    ==
    Superconductivity in diamond, Nature, 428, 542 (2004)
    Origin of Superconductivity in Boron-doped Diamond.
    ===================================================
    =====
    All this discoveries are placed in series of C.Stormer!

    http://home.ural.ru/~filip
    Sincerely, Henadzi Filipenka,6a-7 Boldina str.Grodno
    230030
    Belarus

    P.S.Superconductivity in doped cubic silicon
    E. Bustarret1,7, C. Marcenat3,7, P. Achatz1,3, J. Kamarik1,4, F. L?vy3, A.
    Huxley3,8, L. Ort?ga2, E. Bourgeois5, X. Blase5, D. D?barre6 and J.
    Boulmer6

    Laboratoire d'Etudes des Propri?t?s Electroniques des Solides,
    Laboratoire de Cristallographie, CNRS, BP166, 38042 Grenoble, France



    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/...ature0
    5340.html
    2006.

    Rate this comment: 12345

    hfilipenk
    03/13/2007
    Posts:1
    Avg Rating:
    5/5

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