In case any intelligent life in the universe tries to contact Earth through radio signals, there calls may fall on deaf ears as SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute pulled the plug on its Allen Telescope Array.

Allen Telescope Array, which is situated nearly 450 kilometers north-east of San Francisco, was the world's only radio telescope array that was specially designed to spot potential signals from distant civilization.

The nonprofit SETI Institute blamed lack of funds for the shutdown of the project. The 42-telescope Allen Array will remain in hibernation until necessary funds are provided. It needs $1.5 million a year to operate.

Mountainview, California-based SETI Institute said it was an irony that they were forced to close the Allen Array at a time when a number of new candidate planets had been discovered.

Commenting on the topic, researcher Shostak said, "It's a frustrating thing to know that there are worlds out there that may have life, intelligent life, and not be able to look for them."

NASA scientists recently announced that Kepler telescope helped them discover as many as 1,235 new candidate planets, with around 50 of them being possibly habitable.

The Allen Array project was operated and managed by radio astronomy lab of the University of California, Berkeley, which recently suffered state budget cuts. Funds from the National Science Foundation also have been scaled back radically.