arecibo telescope puerto rico information for kids

Arecibo telescope puerto rico information for kids plus#

That made it the world’s largest radio dish when it was built in 1963. A whopping 305 meters (1,000 feet) across, it covered some 8.1 hectares (20 acres). For starters, the telescope’s dish was enormous. He also is a former director of the Arecibo observatory. He’s an astronomer at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. “Arecibo was unique in several ways,” says Donald Campbell. Astronomers will have to see which of Arecibo’s work other telescopes can take over, he says.īut many of its roles can’t easily be replaced. Tony Beasley agrees that “Arecibo is a big loss.” He directs the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Arecibo telescope puerto rico information for kids plus#

GIONNIXXX/ iStock/Getty Images Plus What makes Arecibo so special When the cables holding it in place came loose, the platform crashed into the telescope on December 1, destroying the dish beyond repair. This is the 900-ton instrument package that had been suspended over Arecibo’s dish. In fact, it beamed the first radio message for aliens into space in 1974. The telescope has even been used for decades in SETI - the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The telescope also has observed mysterious flashes from deep space. (The space agency’s OSIRIS-REx mission sampled a piece of Bennu this past October.) And Arecibo images revealed hydrocarbon lakes on the Saturn’s moon Titan. Arecibo’s images of the asteroid Bennu helped NASA plan a trip there. Its maps also helped point to landing sites for NASA’s Viking missions to Mars in the mid-70s.

Its radar maps of the moon helped NASA pick landing sites for the Apollo moon missions in the 1960s. It also has been a major research center. But Rivera-Valentín sees an added tragedy here. Or San Francisco losing its Golden Gate Bridge. Learning now that this observatory is damaged beyond repair, the scientist says, has been nothing less than “heartbreaking.”įor Puerto Rico, losing Arecibo is like New York City losing the Empire State Building. The telescope would have to be dismantled. But even before this happened, two of the cables supporting that platform had recently failed. On December 1, a 900-ton instrument platform that was suspended above the telescope’s large, light-gathering dish collapsed. And even there, Rivera-Valentín uses data from Arecibo to study planets.īut there will be no new data coming from this telescope. This planetary scientist now works at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. He used Arecibo to help map the shapes and motions of near-Earth asteroids. And Rivera-Valentín in fact returned, years later. The boy dreamed of one day working there. And this important science was taking place right in the backyard of Rivera-Valentín’s hometown - Arecibo, Puerto Rico. People talked about the great work being done with it. “I definitely remember this feeling of just being awestruck,” Rivera-Valentín says. Edgard Rivera-Valentín first visited the Arecibo Observatory as a little kid.