Bad Astronomy

You can help bring SETI’s ear back online

Back in April, I reported that SETI’s Allen Telescope Array – a 42-dish setup in northern California that scans the skies, listening for signals from potential alien intelligences – had to be shut down due to lack of funds.

This bad news resulted in something of a public outcry, and a grassroots organization sprung up to try to help rectify the situation. They started the website SETIstars, where people can donate to restart the ATA. They have the relatively modest goal of reaching $200,000 in donations, which is enough to get the array restarted; SETI can then leverage on this to try to get more funding flowing (the array takes about $2.5M a year to run). You can learn more about this on their info page.

As I write this they’ve raised over $20,000, 13% of the goal, with just over a month to go. If you support them, please go take a look and do what you can.

Related posts:

- E. T. call waiting
- The cost of SETI: infographic
- Interview with Jill Tarter