A radio telescope in Puerto Rico that was, from its 1963 opening until 2016, the largest single-aperture telescope in the world, built into a natural sinkhole. It contributed to the discovery of the first binary pulsar and broadcast the 1974 Arecibo message toward a distant star cluster. Its main structure collapsed in 2020 after cable failures and was not rebuilt.
Facts
Observatory TypeGround-based radio observatory 1 MeasuresRadio and radar astronomy across the ionosphere, planetary bodies and near-Earth objects, and formerly used in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. 2 Operating PrincipleA steerable receiver and radar transmitters were suspended on a cable-mount platform about 150 meters above a giant fixed 305-meter spherical reflector dish built into a karst sinkhole. 2 Classification
Observing Band Connections
Associated With
Operated By
Source Arecibo Observatory (Wikipedia)
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Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica: Space Exploration
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.arecibo-observatory, entity description, observing band (radio)Quote, arecibo-observatory, entity description, observing band (radio)
A radio telescope in Puerto Rico that was, from its 1963 opening until 2016, the largest single-aperture telescope in the world, built into a natural sinkhole.
2. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia FoundationArecibo Observatory, Facilities sectionQuote, Arecibo Observatory, Facilities section
radar astronomy and radio astronomy, and had been part of the Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) program. It was also used by NASA for Near-Earth object detection.
Wiktionary
Wikimedia FoundationArecibo, English pronunciation sectionQuote, Arecibo, English pronunciation section
(US) /ˌæɹəˈsiːboʊ/
Arecibo Observatory (Wikipedia)
Arecibo Observatory, lead section
The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC).
Arecibo Observatory, Arecibo Telescope section
cable-mount steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals mounted 150 m (492 ft) above the dish.
In Group: Single-Dish Radio and Millimetre Telescopes, Lead sentence
The observatory's main instrument was the Arecibo Telescope, a 305 m (1,000 ft) spherical reflector dish built into a natural sinkhole, with a cable-mount steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals mounted 150 m (492 ft) above the dish.
Operated By: University of Central Florida, Article text: operator
A consortium led by the University of Central Florida (UCF) proposed to manage the observatory and cover much of the operations and maintenance costs, and in 2018, NSF made UCF's consortium the new site operators, though no specific actions or funding were announced.
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