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A half-century ago humanity sent its first postcard to the stars, carried by a narrow beam of radio waves. It was November 16, 1974—a turbulent time on planet Earth. The cold war was reaching its crescendo, and the world economy was still sputtering from a Middle East oil embargo that was imposed the previous year. […]
What does the discovery of a binary pulsar in 1974, the discovery of the first exoplanets, and the most powerful message humans have ever sent out into space all have in common? They all happened at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. With a spherical reflector dish that was 305 meters (roughly 1000 feet) in […]
Arecibo Observatory as it appeared during its heyday.Arecibo Observatory / NSF While it was in operation, the radar system at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico was the most powerful source of electromagnetic radiation on this planet. It enabled incredibly detailed imaging of near-Earth asteroids as they passed by. But then, in 2020, support cables […]