(Credit: SETI Institute)
Posted by: Jason McClellan August 8, 2014 0 592 Views
Raging wildfires halted operations at the SETI (Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute’s Allen Telescope Array in Hat
Creek, California. SETI uses this array of radio telescopes to listen for
incoming radio transmissions that could be communication from extraterrestrial
civilizations.
Employees were forced to evacuate the area, and the
data network and electricity were reportedly interrupted at the site. SETI
senior astronomer Seth Shostak explained to CNN, “We can’t listen
when all that is down.” CNN reported that “The blaze came within a
mile of the facility . . . on both the east and west.”
The fire endangers SETI’s Allen Telescope Array.
(Credit: SETI Institute)
Shostak posted regular updates to the SETI Institute’s
website during the ordeal. On Thursday, August 7, he reported, “The Eiler fire
is now reported as being 40 percent (perimeter) contained. It is no longer
threatening the Array.”
SETI scientists were eventually permitted to return
to the site. And on Friday, August 8, Shostak posted the following message on
Twitter, announcing that the institute’s alien search is back online.
ABOUT
JASON MCCLELLAN
Jason McClellan is a UFO journalist and the
producer/co-host of the web series Spacing Out! He is also the web content
manager and staff writer for OpenMinds.tv, and a co-organizer and technical
producer of the International UFO Congress. As a founding member of Open Minds,
Jason served as a writer and editor for the now defunct Open Minds magazine. He
has appeared on Syfy, NatGeo, and, most recently, he co-starred on H2's Hangar
1: The UFO Files. ------ Follow Jason on Twitter @acecentric and subscribe to Jason's updates on Facebook
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