If E.T. phones Earth, he'll get a "disconnect" signal.
Lacking the money to pay its operating expenses, the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., has pulled the plug on the renowned Allen Telescope Array, a field of radio dishes that resemble giant dinner plates. The radio dishes in the Northern California mountains scan the skies for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.
In a letter Friday to donors, SETI Institute Chief Executive Tom Pierson said the array last week was put into "hibernation," safe but nonfunctioning, because of inadequate government support.
If the Earth were to be represented by a sphere one centimeter (0.39") in diameter, the Sun would be represented as a sphere with a diameter of 109 centimeters (3½ ft.), at a distance of 117 meters. At these scales, VY Canis Majoris would have a diameter of approximately 2.3 kilometers (1.43 mi.), assuming the upper limit estimate of its radius.
That time lapse was pretty cool. I wish they did a PIP with in Google earth showing the location of the camera on the planet and position of the camera towards the sky how the earth's rotation causes the perception of movement from that particular perspective.