The famous Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico may be forced to close up , it has been revealed , due to a lack of funding . Earlier this calendar month , the US National Science Foundation ( NSF ) aver they were attempting to find new partner to keep the radio scope going , but time is running out .
It costs about $ 12 million a class to pass the observation tower , which at 305 m ( 1,000 foot ) across was the gravid radiocommunication scope in the worldly concern until China ’s Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope ( FAST ) fare onlinelast year . About $ 4 million of this comes from NASA , with another $ 8 million from the NSF .
But the NSF is essay to fund new ventures , and federal budget cuts mean that Arecibo is one project on the chopping auction block . The NSF is admit proposal from interested company to take over the running game cost of Arecibo , with a deadline in recent April . If no suitable proposition is put frontward , Arecibo ’s days as a hotbed of astronomy may be over .
“ All the other option would need the Arecibo to halt its current work and either become a museum or be mothballed or take down , ” Nicholas White , older frailty - president of the Universities Space Research Association ( USRA ) , which helps to oversee Arecibo for the NSF , toldthe Observer . “ From that perspective , the office looks grim . ”
Since it was spread in 1963 , Arecibo has made numerous substantial discovery including polish the rotation pace of Mercury from 88 days to 59 days , and finding the first substantiate planet outside the Solar System – PSR B1257 + 12 B , which orbits a pulsar .
Arecibo transmitted the Arecibo Message in 1974 to a globular star cluster , in the Leslie Townes Hope of make physical contact with well-informed life . Jarmo Kivekas
It was build to make use of a imprint in the ground get out by a sinkhole in Puerto Rico , meaning the dish could be much larger than other scope , which ask a alloy theoretical account to abide their ravisher . About 150 meters ( 490 substructure ) above the dish is a declamatory 900 - ton ( 820 metric tonnes ) receiver , which can move to observe almost a quarter of the sky above .
Aside from its uranology credentials , Arecibo also meet a star persona in two moving picture – 1995’sGoldeneye , which saw James Bondface offwith villain Alec Trevelyan on the suspend platform , and the 1997 science - fabrication movieContact .
Now , though , the NSF require to move funds to other labor . One of these is the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope ( LSST ) , a relatively large reflecting scope under construction in Chile , due to open up in 2019 , that will survey the entire sky .
Arecibo is not the only telescope up for the chop ; others , admit theGreen Bank radiocommunication telescopein West Virginia , are also in danger . But Arecibo is perhaps the most iconic – andScientific Americannotes that a draught statement from the NSF “ even details which explosive would be require to take down the 305 - time - broad dishful . ”
