Allen Telescope Array, nearly destroyed, survives California wildfire

Jon Richards, SETI Institute

The SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array survived a massive Northern California wildfire this week that briefly disrupted its search for life in space.

"Yes, we are up and running again," said the observatory's senior software engineer, Jon Richards, in a Saturday e-mail to Ars.

Power was disrupted Tuesday and the facility's 42 antennas got too hot and had to be powered down to cool off before resuming operation Friday. The observatory almost went up in smoke after the Eiler fire jumped a highway days ago and came within a mile of the antennas.