Without the Arecibo Telescope, our search for intelligent life is hamstring

“The telescope is in danger of catastrophic failure,” the NSFA wrote in a November statement. “Any attempt at repairs could put workers at potentially life-threatening risk.” Thus, the NSFA announced on Thursday that it would crash on its own before it could destroy the array.

“Until these assessments came in, we had no question about how the observatory should be repaired, but how,” said Ralph Gowm, director of the astronomy department at the National Science Foundation. New York Times On thursday. “But in the end, the progress of the data shows that we can’t do this safely.” It’s the end of the astronomical age and we’re all a little poor for it.

In 1959, Cortel University signed an agreement with the ARPA to build a new radio telescope in the foothills of Cart, outside of Puerto Rico, outside the Ci Resibo. The following year, Cornell astronomer William E. Gordon, overseeing the design and construction of the telescope, demolished the crew, officially known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC). The site’s stewardship was transferred in 2018 to the University of Central Florida, Yang Enterprise and UMET.

Completed in 1963, the Arecabe telescope was initially tasked with studying the ionosphere, one of Gordon’s specialties. However the rationale behind the construction of the telescope actually evolved from an ARPA defense program that sought to create an initial detection system for ink nuclear missile missiles by detecting atmospheric ionization produced by the high speed friction of their flight. At the time, we didn’t have a very solid understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere, so the NAIC Is required. Binoculars were also used by Soviet radar locations to detect and hide signals from the moon.

The Arecibo telescope was just huge. Its primary storage dish measures more than 1000 meters in diameter and is covered in about 39,000 individual aluminum plates. With a total storage area of ​​73,000 square meters (approximately 20 square acres), NAIC became the largest single-hole telescope on Earth from its completion date in 1963 to 2016, when China completed its Rapid Telescope. The cables that broke were two of the 18 that ran between the three of the concrete support towers, which were used to support a 900-ton receiver suspended about 500 feet above the vessel surface.

Its huge move allowed Ariebo telescope capabilities that did not match small sites. Thus, the competition to use the facility was fierce, requiring an impartial three-person panel to give observation time only for very promising research. Despite strict admissions policies, about 200 scientists visit the telescope every year.

It has been used in a wide range of scientific studies – from observing the Earth’s atmosphere to observing everything from the sun’s halophysics to distant rapid radio explosions and pulsar emissions. In fact, the first exoplanets found earlier, using the Arecibo Telescope, were found revolving around the Pulsar, PSR 1257 + 12. What’s more, Are Resibo’s hand was behind the first investigation of the gravitational waves created by the pulsars. That discovery led to her winning the 1993 Nobel Prize. Binoculars also provided invaluable assistance in the search for life.

The first attempt was made on November 16, 1974, in what is now known as the Areribo message. As part of a celebration marking the recent remodeling of the telescope, SETI researchers pushed the radio signal toward the MD13 global star cluster – “extremely powerful transmission intentionally made in space”. It conveyed a seven-part message coined by Cornell astronomer Frank Drake (like Drake’s equation) and Carl Sagan. We have yet to hear back. The Arecibo Telescope also produced data that was chewed by the Seti5 Home project, while the same Edison2 Home program found about two dozen new pulsars in Arecibo’s rims.

The telescope has experienced many difficulties in recent decades, including damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017 and unreliable funding. Nevertheless, the NSF’s decision came as a gut commission of the scientific community. “Think about what the Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco means, what the Statue of Liberty means to New Yorkers. Arecibo is more for this and that Puerto Rico as it goes beyond a mark, “wrote a letter to Edgard Rivera-Valentin of the Moon and Planetary Organization. National Geographic. “For some of us, it became a goal to reach, a symbol that we can achieve great things, that pride or in our own backyard; We were serving the whole planet. “

Others, such as planetary scientist Ed Rivera-Valentin, are responding to the news with fond memories of their experiences there:

Yet others took a more pragmatic view of the situation. Professor of Extragalactic Astronomy at the University of Manchester, Dr. “I would say Aresibo is bad for the closed set, but not destructive,” Christopher Conselis told Engadget. “It’s a very sensitive telescope to detect signals but now it’s not the only game in the city.”

“For example, the M100M breakthrough listening project uses other telescopes in the UK, including Jodrell Bank and Alan Array, but does not use Arecibo,” he added. “However, we do not know how, or where the SET signal will appear. We could probably find out the meaning of Arecibo’s loss.”

When it stops operating, the facility will not be demolished. Instead, only a 305 meter tall telescope will come down and the process has begun. The NSF has also deployed a fleet of HD camera drones for photographic surveys of the area. There is no timetable yet for when the commissioning will be completed.

“For nearly six decades, the Arecibo Observatory has served as a son for the science of progress and what a partnership with the community might look like,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchnath said in a statement on Thursday. Looking for ways to help and maintain a strong relationship with the people of Puerto Rico. “