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 Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica: Space Exploration
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
2. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia FoundationArecibo Observatory, lead sectionQuote, Arecibo Observatory, lead section
The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC).
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.
2. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia FoundationArecibo Observatory, Arecibo Telescope sectionQuote, Arecibo Observatory, Arecibo Telescope section
cable-mount steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals mounted 150 m (492 ft) above the dish.
Wiktionary
Wikimedia FoundationArecibo, English pronunciation sectionQuote, Arecibo, English pronunciation section
(US) /ˌæɹəˈsiːboʊ/
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