Why the Arecibo Telescope Collapse is a Tragic Loss for Science

At the end of what was already a tough year, in December of 2020 astronomers faced another loss, the collapse of the Arecibo Telescope. For 57 years the telescope observed the universe through radio eyes, but due to a mix of complicated engineering issues, politics, and a few snapped cables, the bulk of the telescope came crashing down one morning in December. 

Although the telescope is a part of pop culture, its legacy is rooted in its science.

If you’ve seen the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster or "GoldenEye" with Pierce Brosnan, you may recognize the Arecibo Observatory. It is such a unique place that it was also featured in an episode of the X-Files. But although the telescope is a part of pop culture, its legacy is rooted in its science. Let’s take a look at the important scientific contributions we owe to this incredibly unique observatory. 

Where is the Arecibo Observatory?

The Observatory sits in a remote region in the Puerto Rican jungle. To get there, you must leave the bustling, culture-packed city of San Juan behind and drive two hours to where the terrain becomes very hilly. The karst or limestone-like topography covers the region with large sinkholes.

It’s hard to get a sense of just how huge this dish is from pictures.

Nestled in one of these gigantic sinkholes is an enormous dish spanning 305 meters (approximately 1,000 feet) across. It’s hard to get a sense of just how huge this dish is from pictures. Even up close, you can only see the whole thing from a perch high above from either the Observatory control room or the Angel Ramos Visitor’s Center. Until recently, the Arecibo dish was the largest single-dish telescope in the world with a size equivalent to a bit longer than three football fields or a bit shorter than three soccer fields.

What did the Arecibo Telescope do?

The Arecibo Telescope observes at radio wavelengths—that's light with wavelengths too long for our eyes to see. That means it can see things that traditional optical telescopes can’t. So, what emits at radio wavelengths? 

Surveys conducted at the telescope have discovered entire galaxies never seen before.

When stars die, they leave behind very dense remnants that differ in makeup depending on how massive the star was when it first lit up. Stars on the smaller, less-massive end, like...

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