As you read this, the metal dishes of 42 radio telescopes, hidden in a little-visited valley in California's Cascade Mountains, are locked on to a star system hundreds of light
years away. Together they will scan 10 billion radio channels, searching for signals deliberately sent by intelligent aliens or accidentally leaked from their planets. Then the dishes will turn to the next star and its satellites.
The 42 devices of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) have already taken a preliminary look at Kepler-452b, the potentially habitable, Earth-like planet whose discovery was announced last week. And "so far, any inhabitants of Kepler-452b are remaining coy," admits Seth Shostak, of the SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] Institute, which runs the telescope. But Dr Shostak, its director of research, is anything but disheartened.
"Should?" We already have contacted aliens. To read more, click here.