Fun Fact Fridaaaaay!
Today You Learned about the Arecibo Telescope and Observatory:
Until the completion of FAST in China in 2016, the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico was the world’s largest radio telescope, and it was completed back in 1963. Aside from looking like the awesomest place to skateboard ever of all time, the telescope used radar to observe objects in space. And it made several discoveries, including the true length of Mercury’s rotation period, the detection of Comet Encke, and the first direct image of an asteroid. It was also a major part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Project, with it beaming a pixelated message into space to see if anyone would pick up and answer back. Probably unsurprisingly, there are tons of stories about UFOs above Puerto Rico.
The University of Utah tells me the original message was in black and white though.
Also! There was an attached museum with tons of cool science exhibits about astronomy.
Sadly, in the early 2000’s, NASA decided to cut funding to the telescope. There were plenty of advocates, and it continued to operate for over a decade…until it was heavily damaged in 2017 during Hurricane Maria, and in 2020, before much could be done to save it, the entire thing collapsed. There are efforts to replace it and preserve parts of the old telescope, but I don’t know how that’s going.
Also, it appeared in a James Bond movie.
Pierce Brosnan didn’t actually climb that thing though; reportedly it was a stunt double because in real life Brosnan is afraid of heights (something he’s a bit sensitive about, I think).
