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Australian astronomers involved in SETI, the search for extraterrestrial
intelligence, have bought land in Boonah, north of Brisbane, and plan to build
an 18-metre radio antenna. The group hopes to receive the antenna as a donation
from the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales. Along with a redundant 7-metre
satellite dish near Wellington in New Zealand, and a third antenna in Western
Australia that has yet to be acquired, the Boonah telescope will be used for a
project called Tantalus. This will search for signs of intelligent life around
stars that are no more than 200 light years away and that can be observed only
from the southern hemisphere.