This article, which reports some interesting science to come from the Arecibo Radio Observatory (to map the MW Galaxy), does a pretty lousy job in its explanation. First, it confuses universe with galaxy, in this case the Milky Way Galaxy.

Then it says:

The radio telescope, the world's most sensitive listening device that is powerful enough to hear planets forming several billion lights years away.....The 1,000-foot-wide parabolic receiver -- composed of 38,000 aluminum tiles -- allows researchers to listen to sounds in space instead of depending on optics, like the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
aargghh! :x

Besides the issue concerning "listening" to radio waves :roll: , I don't believe the first statement is factually correct. Planets? billions of light years away?

Obviously, there are jobs for good science writers out there, if this kind of thing is allowed to pass muster. Actually, I am a bit suprised. Space.com usually does a decent job.