Looks like scientists at the Arecibo Observatory in San Juan, Puerto Rico, are catching up with us science fiction writers at long last.
And it's high time they did.

For this Friday, by utilizing their radio telescope in conjuction with even more radio receivers, they'll begin to map this big and beautiful universe of ours by 'eavesdropping' on such heavenly bodies as planets as they are being created billions and billions [as the late and great Dr. Carl Sagan might say] of light years away as well as on a multitude of neutron stars, supernovas, pulsars - heck, even black holes!

[There's one, you know, that causes quite a bit of high anxiety in my book, THE FINAL PHASE*]

Anyway, by now you may be wondering HOW? Simple. An extra million dollars worth of funding coupled with the dedication of top world scientists. They will be working on what's being called The ALFA Project and also be using a 1,000 foot wide parabolic receiver to listen [which probably beats the heck out of comparing photographs month-after-month.]

The map, itself, will be used to identify and specify [that is, where what is - or perhaps - WAS as the case may be.] Not only that but ET beware! Since now we'll not only be looking for you, but listening in on you, too!

All told, this project [that surely would make even Mercator jealous] should be complete in about two years. The location of a new pulsar, in fact, has already been plotted during a test run.

[Boy, I don't know about you but I haven't been this excited since the beginning of The Human Genome Project.]

*Excuse the plug but I need to say I was paid for this article somehow - or so I've heard.