Mountain View, Calif.-based SETI Institute shut down its renowned Allen Telescope Array- a field of radio dishes that used to scan the skies to get signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.

The non-profit research institute SETI said that it was the lack of funds that forced it to discontinue operations. The Allen Telescope Array will remain in hibernation mode until additional funds are provided.

Annual costs for Allen Telescope Array’s operations are $1.5 million.

Speaking on the topic, SETI Director Jill Tarter said, “There is a huge irony that a time when we discover so many planets to look at, we don’t have the operating funds to listen.”

A few month back NASA scientists announced that Kepler telescope helped them discover a total of 1,235 new possible planets in universe.

The SETI Institute's is committed to search the origin, nature and pervasiveness of life in the universe. It wants to prove that we are not alone in the universe.

Allen Telescope Array, situated nearly 450 kilometers north-east of San Francisco, is operated and managed by radio astronomy lab of the University of California, Berkeley.