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Arecibo Observatory

US

The Arecibo Observatory, formerly owned by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) in Puerto Rico, housed the world's largest single-unit radio telescope until 2016. It served as a crucial facility for radio and radar astronomy, planetary science, and atmospheric studies. Although the telescope collapsed in December 2020 and won't be rebuilt, its data and legacy continue to contribute to discoveries related to pulsars, asteroids, galaxies, exoplanets, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

academic
Arecibo, Puerto Rico, United States
www.naic.edu/
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All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.

The Rimae Bode analysis used ground-based radar data from the Arecibo Observatory for pyroclastic mapping.

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NASA paid part of Arecibo Observatory’s operating costs and used the telescope as a planetary radar for studying solar system objects, notably near-Earth asteroids.

RelationshipsFinancialCapabilityValue 4.0Mar 8, 2021NSF report estimates Arecibo cleanup cost at up to $50 million

Arecibo Observatory's 305-meter radio telescope observing platform collapsed on 2020-12-01.

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The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is assigning and allocating $8,000,000 to start reconstruction work at Arecibo Observatory.

FinancialGeneralPlanValue 4.0Jan 1, 2021Puerto Rico government supports rebuilding Arecibo

Wanda Vázquez Garced signed an executive order on 2020-12-28 making it the formal policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to rebuild the 305-meter radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory.

LegalPlanValue 3.0Jan 1, 2021Puerto Rico government supports rebuilding Arecibo

The 305-meter radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory collapsed on 2020-12-01 when a series of cables supporting a 900-ton observing platform snapped.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Dec 4, 2020NSF says it’s too early to decide whether to replace Arecibo

NSF will provide the full funding it had planned to allocate to Arecibo Observatory for fiscal year 2021.

FinancialGeneralValue 4.0Dec 4, 2020NSF says it’s too early to decide whether to replace Arecibo

The National Science Foundation announced on 2020-11-19 that it will perform a controlled decommissioning of the giant radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

PlanGovernanceValue 4.0Nov 19, 2020NSF to decommission Arecibo radio telescope

Part of Arecibo’s funding comes from NASA, which uses a planetary radar system at the observatory to track and characterize near-Earth objects as part of NASA’s planetary defense program.

RelationshipsCapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Aug 12, 2020Arecibo radio observatory damaged
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