RIP Arecibo Radio Observatory

It is a shame this is being decommissioned. SO much damage. I hear there are new tools out there that will be much better at finding potential life, but for decades this was the scope soldiering on looking for it. Long Live Arecibo.

it was destroyed, but really it was aging badly and frankly orbital is better, but it is a tremendous place that i always wanted to visit if i ever got to Puerto Rico.

Quote by DonnaCupcake
it was aging badly

The problem, as I saw it explained by one astronomy vlogger, is that it could transmit as well as receive, which many current large radio telescopes and arrays cannot. So they could bounce radio waves off the moon to measure changes in its distance from Earth and that sort of thing. But, yeah, it was in too bad a shape to be repaired without a major effort so its day had pretty clearly come.

I have been there and its impressive ... pretty impressive set of stairs to climb to get to it as well. Its a shame about all the damage in PR. It really should be supported better by the US than it is!

Quote by DonnaCupcake

it was destroyed, but really it was aging badly and frankly orbital is better, but it is a tremendous place that i always wanted to visit if i ever got to Puerto Rico.

Totally agree that it's day had come and orbital win hands down but still sad for an astronomer to see the end of such an icon. The biggest scope I've seen is the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank and at 76m, as my son said when he was 6, 'it's huge!'

Quote by Seeker4

The problem, as I saw it explained by one astronomy vlogger, is that it could transmit as well as receive, which many current large radio telescopes and arrays cannot. So they could bounce radio waves off the moon to measure changes in its distance from Earth and that sort of thing. But, yeah, it was in too bad a shape to be repaired without a major effort so its day had pretty clearly come.

Since Apollo that hasn't been an issue, they planted laser reflectors on the moon and even amateurs with the right equipment can measure the distance. Certainly not a reason on its own to keep it going. With interferometry they have effective dishes far bigger, they just agree plans to start building an array (or rather 2) that will have an effective diameter from South Africa to Australia.