![]() Most recently, in September 2017, it was hit by hurricane Maria. In nearly 6 decades of continuous work, it’s been through earthquakes, hurricanes, tropical storms and what not. The observatory didn’t always have it easy. There is no other such telescope anywhere in the World!. It became operational in 1963 and until 2016 the observatory held the title of the biggest single aperture radio telescope in the World.Īrecibo is a colossal structure: the 305 meter dish is built into a karst sinkhole 500 feet above the dish, the giant 900-ton platform is suspended in the air on 18 steel cables supported by 3 concrete towers. Well…used to have.Īrecibo observatory is located south of the city of Arecibo, in Puerto Rico’s North-West. Luckily, we have a giant radio telescope to keep an eye on those potentially dangerous space rocks. Out of all the end-of-the-world scenarios, asteroid impact seems most likely to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth. It is, first of all, a World leading research facility where some of the most significant discoveries were made, from the first ever exoplanet and millisecond pulsar to the Nobel Prize-winning study of the double pulsar behavior. It was Arecibo that was featured in the sci-fi classic 1997 movie Contact, the film that reportedly inspired so many young women (including some of the WonderDome Portable Planetarium staff) to choose a career in Astronomy.Īnd it is Arecibo that we consider the birthplace of SETI research.īut the Arecibo observatory is more than just a cultural landmark. After all, it was the Arecibo Radio Telescope that beamed the powerful Arecibo Message into space in an attempt to reach intelligent aliens back in 1974. ![]() Today the US National Science Foundation made the decision to decommission the legendary observatory. Following two recent cable failures in August and November, the giant telescope was on the verge of collapse. Things were looking grim for the 305 meter Arecibo radio telescope these past few months. Image credit: Evilkalla at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons There will be no more radio light for the legendary Arecibo telescope
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |