Allen Telescope Array Commencing Search for Alien Life

Partially funded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, the $50 million Allen Telescope Array will eventually combine 350 twenty-foot (6 m) dish antennas that will “sweep more than one million star systems for radio signals generated by intelligent beings.” Right now, the first 42 dishes are in operation, producing radio maps of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies. (The project needs another $25 million for completion.)

SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostak claimed the ’scope “may lead to the discovery of thinking beings elsewhere in the Universe.”

According to BBC News, the array’s creators—the SETI Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory—“hope [the array] will help spot definite signs of alien life by 2025.” A statement released by SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostak claimed the ’scope “may lead to the discovery of thinking beings elsewhere in the Universe.”

The hubbub over the prospect of intelligent life has only increased in past years—even as our explorations farther and farther into space have turned up no signs of life many hoped would be out there. Fueled by evolutionary presuppositions, modern science is heading against the current of evidence by continuing to fund new astronomy projects designed to probe planets, moons, extrasolar planets, and far-off stars and galaxies for even the faintest, most inconclusive data that could be interpreted as showing life elsewhere may be possible.

For example, in the news this week in addition to the Allen Telescope Array, are reports suggesting Saturn’s moon Enceladus may harbor life and Venus may have once done so.

As we’ve noted before, humankind—especially under the influence of evolutionary theory—will spend countless hours pondering the existence of intelligent life in the universe (earth notwithstanding!), yet will laugh at the signs of intelligence and design that both enfold and compose us here on earth.