Arecibo Observatory

Arecibo Radio Telescope

Aerial view of the Observatory
Organisation SRI International
USRA
UMET
Location(s) Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Coordinates 18°20′39″N 66°45′10″W / 18.34417°N 66.75278°W / 18.34417; -66.75278Coordinates: 18°20′39″N 66°45′10″W / 18.34417°N 66.75278°W / 18.34417; -66.75278
Wavelength electromagnetic spectrum: (3.00 cm to 1.00 meter)
Built Completed in 1963
Telescope style spherical reflector
Diameter 1,000 ft (305 m)
Collecting area 73,000 square meters (790,000 sq ft)
Mounting semi-transit telescope: fixed primary with secondary (Gregorian reflector) and a delay-line feed, each of which moves on tracks to point to different parts of the sky.
Dome none
Website www.naic.edu
National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center
Area 118 acres (480,000 m2)
Architect Gordon, William E; Kavanaugh, T.C.
NRHP Reference # 07000525
Added to NRHP September 23, 2008[1]

The Arecibo Observatory is a radio telescope in the municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. This observatory is operated by SRI International, USRA and UMET, under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF).[2][3] The observatory is the sole facility of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), which refers to the observatory, and the staff that operates it.[4] From its construction in the 1960s until 2011, the observatory was managed by Cornell University.

The observatory's 1000 foot (305 meter) radio telescope is the world's largest single-aperture telescope. It is used in three major areas of research: radio astronomy, atmospheric science, and radar astronomy. Scientists who want to use the observatory submit proposals that are evaluated by an independent scientific board.

The observatory has appeared in film and television productions, gaining more recognition in 1999 when it began to collect data for the SETI@home project. It has been listed on the American National Register of Historic Places starting in 2008.[1][5] It was the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of October 3, 2008.[6] The center was named in IEEE Milestone in 2001.[7] It has a visitor center that is open part-time.[8]

General information

The main collecting dish is 305 m (1,000 ft) in diameter, constructed inside the depression left by a karst sinkhole.[9] It contains the largest curved focusing dish on Earth, giving Arecibo the largest electromagnetic-wave-gathering capacity.[10] The dish surface is made of 38,778 perforated aluminum panels, each about 3 by 6 feet (1 by 2 m), supported by a mesh of steel cables. The ground beneath is accessible and supports shade-tolerant vegetation.[11]

The observatory has four radar transmitters, with effective isotropic radiated powers of 20 TW at 2380 MHz, 2.5 TW (pulse peak) at 430 MHz, 300 MW at 47 MHz, and 6 MW at 8 MHz.

The reflector is a spherical reflector, not a parabolic reflector. To aim the device, the receiver is moved to intercept signals reflected from different directions by the spherical dish surface. A parabolic mirror would have varying astigmatism when the receiver is off the focal point, but the error of a spherical mirror is uniform in every direction.

The receiver is on a 900-ton platform suspended 150 m (492 ft) above the dish by 18 cables running from three reinforced concrete towers, one 365 feet high and the other two 265 feet high, placing their tops at the same elevation. The platform has a rotating, bow-shaped track 93 m (305 ft) long, called the azimuth arm, carrying the receiving antennas and secondary and tertiary reflectors. This allows the telescope to observe any region of the sky in a forty-degree cone of visibility about the local zenith (between −1 and 38 degrees of declination). Puerto Rico's location near the Northern Tropic allows Arecibo to view the planets in the Solar System over the Northern half of their orbit. The round trip light time to objects beyond Saturn is longer than the 2.6 hour time that the telescope can track a celestial position, preventing radar observations of more distant objects.

The Arecibo Radio Telescope as viewed from the observation deck, October 2013

Design and architecture

A detailed view of the beam-steering mechanism and some antennas. The triangular platform at the top is fixed, and the azimuth arm rotates beneath it. To the left is the Gregorian sub-reflector, and to the right is the 96-foot-long (29 m) line feed tuned to 430 MHz. Just visible at the upper right is part of the rectangular waveguide that brings the 2.5 MW 430 MHz radar transmitter's signal up to the focal region.

The origins of the observatory trace to late 1950s efforts to develop anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defences as part of the newly formed ARPA's ABM umbrella-effort, Project Defender. Even at this early stage it was clear that the use of radar decoys would be a serious problem at the long ranges needed to successfully attack a warhead, ranges on the order of 1,000 miles (1,600 km).[12][13]

Among the many Defender projects were several studies based on the concept that a re-entering nuclear warhead would cause unique physical signatures while still in the upper atmosphere. It was known that hot, high-speed objects caused ionization of the atmosphere that reflects radar waves, and it appeared that a warhead's signature would be different enough from decoys that a detector could pick out the warhead directly, or alternately, provide added information that would allow operators to focus a conventional tracking radar on the single return from the warhead.[12][13]

Although the concept appeared to offer a solution to the tracking problem, there was almost no information on either the physics of re-entry or a strong understanding of the normal composition of the upper layers of the ionosphere. ARPA began to address both simultaneously. To better understand the radar returns from a warhead, several radars were built on Kwajalein Atoll, while another effort started with the dual-purpose of understanding the ionosphere's F-layer while also producing a general purpose scientific radio observatory.[12][13]

The observatory was built between mid-1960 and November 1963 and designed by William E. Gordon of Cornell University, who intended to use it to study Earth's ionosphere.[14][15][16] Originally, a fixed parabolic reflector was envisioned, pointing in a fixed direction with a 150 m (492 ft) tower to hold equipment at the focus. This design would have limited its use in other research areas, such as radar astronomy, radio astronomy and atmospheric science, which require the ability to point at different positions in the sky and track those positions for an extended time as Earth rotates. Ward Low of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) pointed out this flaw and put Gordon in touch with the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory (AFCRL) in Boston, Massachusetts, where one group headed by Phil Blacksmith was working on spherical reflectors and another group was studying the propagation of radio waves in and through the upper atmosphere. Cornell University proposed the project to ARPA in mid-1958 and a contract was signed between the AFCRL and the University in November 1959. Cornell University and Zachary Sears published a request for proposals (RFP) asking for a design to support a feed moving along a spherical surface 435 feet (133 m) above the stationary reflector. The RFP suggested a tripod or a tower in the center to support the feed. On the day the project for the design and construction of the antenna was announced at Cornell University, Gordon had also envisioned a 435 ft (133 m) tower centered in the 1,000 ft (305 m) reflector to support the feed.

George Doundoulakis, who directed research at General Bronze Corporation in Garden City, New York, along with Zachary Sears, who directed Internal Design at Digital B & E Corporation, New York, received the RFP from Cornell University for the antenna design and studied the idea of suspending the feed with his brother, Helias Doundoulakis, a civil engineer. George Doundoulakis identified the problem that a tower or tripod would have presented around the center, (the most important area of the reflector), and devised a better design by suspending the feed. He presented his proposal to Cornell for a doughnut truss suspended by four cables from four towers above the reflector, having along its edge a rail track for the azimuth truss positioning. This second truss, in the form of an arc, or arch, was to be suspended below, which would rotate on the rails through 360 degrees. The arc also had rails on which the unit supporting the feed would move for the feed's elevational positioning. A counterweight would move symmetrically opposite to the feed for stability and, if a hurricane struck, the whole feed could be raised and lowered. Helias Doundoulakis designed the cable suspension system which was finally adopted. Although the present configuration is substantially the same as the original drawings by George and Helias, (though with three towers instead of the original four), the U.S. Patent office granted Helias a patent,[17] for the brothers' innovative idea. Another assignee on the patent, William J. Casey, later became director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Ronald Reagan.

Construction began in mid-1960, with the official opening on November 1, 1963.[18] As the primary dish is spherical, its focus is along a line rather than at one point, as would be the case for a parabolic reflector. As a result, complex line feeds were implemented to carry out observations. Each line feed covered a narrow frequency band: 2–5% of the center frequency of the band. A limited number of line feeds could be used at any one time, limiting the telescope's flexibility.

Since then, the telescope has been upgraded several times. Initially, when the maximum expected operating frequency was about 500 MHz, the surface consisted of half-inch galvanized wire mesh laid directly on the support cables. In 1974, a high-precision surface consisting of 40,000 individually adjustable aluminum panels replaced the old wire mesh, and the highest usable frequency rose to about 5000 MHz. A Gregorian reflector system was installed in 1997, incorporating secondary and tertiary reflectors to focus radio waves at one point. This allowed installing a suite of receivers, covering the full 1–10 GHz range, that could be easily moved to the focal point, giving Arecibo more flexibility. A metal mesh screen was also installed around the perimeter to block the ground's thermal radiation from reaching the feed antennas. Finally, a more powerful 2400 MHz transmitter was added.

Research and discoveries

The Arecibo message with added color to highlight the separate parts. The actual binary transmission carried no color information.

Many scientific discoveries have been made with the observatory. On April 7, 1964, soon after it began operating, Gordon Pettengill's team used it to determine that the rotation period of Mercury was not 88 days, as formerly thought, but only 59 days.[19] In 1968, the discovery of the periodicity of the Crab Pulsar (33 milliseconds) by Lovelace and others provided the first solid evidence that neutron stars exist.[20] In 1974, Hulse and Taylor discovered the first binary pulsar PSR B1913+16,[21] an accomplishment for which they later received the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1982, the first millisecond pulsar, PSR B1937+21, was discovered by Donald C. Backer, Shrinivas Kulkarni, Carl Heiles, Michael Davis, and Miller Goss.[22] This object spins 642 times per second and, until the discovery of PSR J1748-2446ad in 2005, was identified as the fastest-spinning pulsar.

In August 1989, the observatory directly imaged an asteroid for the first time in history: 4769 Castalia.[23] The following year, Polish astronomer Aleksander Wolszczan made the discovery of pulsar PSR B1257+12, which later led him to discover its three orbiting planets and possible comet.[24][25] These were the first extrasolar planets discovered. In 1994, John Harmon used the Arecibo Radio Telescope to map the distribution of ice in the polar regions of Mercury.[26]

In January 2008, detection of prebiotic molecules methanimine and hydrogen cyanide were reported from the observatory's radio spectroscopy measurements of the distant starburst galaxy Arp 220.[27]

SETI, METI

The Arecibo Message

Main article: Arecibo Message

In 1974, the Arecibo Message, an attempt to communicate with potential extraterrestrial life, was transmitted from the radio telescope toward the globular cluster Messier 13, about 25,000 light-years away.[28] The 1,679 bit pattern of 1s and 0s defined a 23 by 73 pixel bitmap image that included numbers, stick figures, chemical formulas and a crude image of the telescope.[29]

The RuBisCo Stars

Main article: RuBisCo Stars

On November 7, 2009, as part of the 35th anniversary of the Drake/Sagan transmission to M13, the RuBisCO gene sequence was transmitted to three nearby stars: GJ 83.1, Teagarden's star SO 025300.5+165258 and Kappa Ceti (G5B). The project was by artist Joe Davis with support from Paul Gilster, the Arecibo Observatory, Cornell University and others.

SETI searches

Main article: SETI

Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI),[30] is a program to search for extraterrestrial life or advanced technologies. SETI aims to answer the question "Are we alone in the Universe?" by scanning the skies for transmissions from intelligent civilizations elsewhere in our galaxy.

Arecibo is the source of data for the SETI@home and Astropulse distributed computing projects put forward by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and was used for the SETI Institute's Project Phoenix observations.[31] The Einstein@Home distributed computing project has found more than 20 pulsars in Arecibo data.[32]

Other uses

Terrestrial aeronomy experiments at Arecibo have included the Coqui 2 experiment, supported by NASA. The telescope also has military intelligence uses, some of which include locating Soviet radar installations by detecting their signals bouncing off the Moon.[33]

Limited amateur radio operations have occurred, using moon bounce" or Earth–Moon–Earth communication, in which radio signals aimed at the Moon are reflected back to Earth. The first of these operations was on June 13–14, 1964, using the call KP4BPZ. A dozen or so two-way contacts were made on 144 and 432 MHz. On July 3 and July 24, 1965, KP4BPZ was again activated on 432 MHz, making approximately 30 contacts on 432 MHz during the limited time slots available. For these tests, a very wide-band instrumentation recorder captured a large segment of the receiving bandwidth, enabling later verification of other amateur station callsigns. These were not two-way contacts. From April 16–18, 2010, again, the Arecibo Amateur Radio Club KP4AO conducted moon-bounce activity using the antenna.[34] On November 10, 2013, the KP4AO Arecibo Amateur Radio Club conducted a Fifty-Year Commemoration Activation, lasting 7 hours on 14.250 MHz SSB, without using the main dish antenna.

Funding concerns

Since the early 1970s, the Arecibo Observatory has been supported by the NSF (National Science Foundation divisions of Astronomical Sciences and of Atmospheric Sciences) with incremental support by NASA, for operating the planetary radar.[35] Between 2001 and 2006, NASA decreased, then eliminated, its support of the planetary radar,[36] but restored and increased the funding in FY-2010.

A report by the NSF division of Astronomical Sciences, made public on November 3, 2006, recommended substantially decreased astronomy funding for the Arecibo Observatory, from $10.5 million in 2007 to $4.0 million in 2011.[37][38] If other sources of money could not be obtained, the observatory would be forced to close. The report also advised that 80 percent of observing time be allocated to the surveys already in progress, reducing available time for smaller programs.

Academics and researchers responded by organizing to protect and advocate for the observatory. They established the Arecibo Science Advocacy Partnership (ASAP), to advance the scientific excellence of Arecibo Observatory research and to publicize its accomplishments in astronomy, aeronomy and planetary radar.[39] ASAP's goals included mobilizing the existing broad base of support for Arecibo science within the fields it serves directly, the broad scientific community; provide a forum for the Arecibo research community and enhance communication within it; promote the potential of Arecibo for groundbreaking science; suggest paths that will maximize it into the foreseeable future, and showcase the broad impact and far-reaching implications of the science currently carried out with this unique instrument.[39]

Contributions by the government of Puerto Rico may be one way to help fill the funding gap, but remain controversial and uncertain. At town hall meetings about the potential closure, Puerto Rican Senate President Kenneth McClintock announced an initial local appropriation of $3.0 million during fiscal year 2008 to fund a major maintenance project to restore the three pillars that support the antenna platform to their original condition, pending inclusion in the next bond issue.[40] The bond authorization, with a $3.0 million appropriation, was approved by the Senate of Puerto Rico on November 14, 2007, on the first day of a special session called by Aníbal Acevedo Vilá.[41] The Puerto Rico House of Representatives repeated this action on June 30, 2008. Puerto Rico's governor signed the measure into law in August 2008.[42] These funds were made available during the second half of 2009.

In a letter published on September 19, 2007, José Enrique Serrano, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, asked the National Science Foundation to keep Arecibo operating.[43]

Language similar to that of the letter of September 19 was included in the FY-2008 omnibus spending bill. In October 2007, Puerto Rico's then-Resident Commissioner, Luis Fortuño, along with Dana Rohrabacher, filed legislation to assure the continued operation of the famed observatory.[44] A similar bill was filed in the U.S. Senate in April 2008 by the Junior Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton.[45]

Since the Arecibo observatory is owned by the Government of the United States, donations by private or corporate donors cannot be made. However, as a non-profit (501(c)(3)) "public charities" under US law, the operators, SRI International and Universidad Metropolitana, can accept contributions on behalf of the Arecibo Observatory.[46]

In September 2007, in an open letter to researchers, the NSF clarified the status of the budget for NAIC, stating the present plan could hit the targeted budgetary revision.[47] No mention of private funding was made. However, in the event that its budget target is not reached, it must be noted that the NSF is undertaking studies to mothball or demolish the observatory to return it to its natural setting.

In November 2007, The Planetary Society urged the U.S. Congress to prevent the Arecibo Observatory from closing because of insufficient funding, since its radar contributes greatly to the accuracy of predictions of asteroid impacts on the Earth.[48] The Planetary Society believes that continued operation of the observatory will reduce the cost of mitigation (that is, deflection of a near-Earth asteroid on collision to Earth), should that be necessary.

Also in November of that year The New York Times described the consequences of the budget cuts at the site.[49] In July 2008, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that the funding crisis, due to federal budget cuts, was still very much alive.[50]

The SETI@home program is using the telescope as a primary source for ET research. The program urges people to send a letter to their political representatives in support of full federal funding of the observatory.[51]

The NAIC received $3.1 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This was used for basic maintenance and for a second, much smaller, antenna to be used for very long baseline interferometry, new Klystron amplifiers for the planetary radar system and student training.[52] This allotment was an increase of about 30 percent over the FY-2009 budget. However, the FY-2010 funding request by NSF was cut by $1.2 million, (−12.5 percent), over the FY-2009 budget), in light of their continued plans to reduce funding.[53]

The 2011 NSF budget was reduced by a further $1.6 million, −15 percent compared to 2010, with a further $1.0 million reduction projected by FY-2014.[54] Starting in FY-2010, NASA restored its historical support by contributing $2.0 million per year for planetary science, particularly the study of near-Earth objects, at Arecibo. NASA implemented this funding through its Near Earth Object Observations program.[55]

Furthermore, in 2010 the NSF issued a call for new proposals for the management of NAIC starting in FY-2012.[4] On May 12, 2011, the agency informed Cornell University that, as of October 1, 2011, it would no longer be the operator of the NAIC and the Arecibo Observatory. At that time, Cornell transferred its operations to SRI International, along with two other managing partners, Universities Space Research Association and Universidad Metropolitana de Puerto Rico, with a number of other collaborators.[3][56] Upon the award of the new cooperative agreement for NAIC management and operation, NSF also decertified NAIC as a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC),[54] with the stated goal of providing the NAIC with greater freedom to establish broader scientific partnerships and pursue funding opportunities for activities beyond the scope of those supported by NSF.[57]

In October 2015, the NSF released a "Dear Colleague Letter" reiterating its desire for a "substantially reduced funding commitment from NSF".[58]

Ángel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center

Logo of the observatory at the entrance gate

Opened in 1997, the Ángel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center features interactive exhibits and displays about the operations of the radio telescope, astronomy and atmospheric sciences.[59] The center is named after the financial foundation that honors Ángel Ramos, owner of the El Mundo newspaper and founder of Telemundo. The Foundation provided half of the funds to build the Visitor Center, with the remainder received from private donations and Cornell University.

The center, in collaboration with the Caribbean Astronomical Society,[60] host a series of Astronomical Nights throughout the year, which feature diverse discussions regarding exoplanets, and astronomical phenomena and discoveries (such as Comet ISON). The main purpose of the center is to increase public interest in astronomy, the observatory's research successes, and space endeavors.

The center is open Wednesday - Sunday, on many holidays and during school breaks. The admission fee is $10.00 for adults, and $6.00 for seniors and children under 10.[61]

List of directors

In popular culture

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (3 October 2008). "Weekly List Actions". Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  2. ↑ Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit (20 May 2011). "New Consortium to Run Arecibo Observatory". Science. Retrieved 2012-01-11.
  3. 1 2 "SRI International to Manage Arecibo Observatory" (Press release). SRI International. 2013-07-10. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  4. 1 2 "NSF request for proposals issued in 2010" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-09-02.
  5. ↑ Juan Llanes Santos (March 20, 2007). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center / Arecibo Observatory" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved October 21, 2009. (72 pages, with many historic b&w photos and 18 color photos)
  6. ↑ "Milestones:NAIC/Arecibo Radiotelescope, 1963". IEEE Global History Network. IEEE. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
  7. ↑ Visitor Center
  8. ↑ David Brand (21 January 2003). "Astrophysicist Robert Brown, leader in telescope development, named to head NAIC and its main facility, Arecibo Observatory". Cornell University. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  9. ↑ Frederic Castel (8 May 2000). "Arecibo: Celestial Eavesdropper". Space.com. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  10. ↑ "General Views of the Arecibo Observatory". Image Gallery. Arecibo Observatory. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  11. 1 2 3 Barry Rosenberg, "DARPA Paves the Way for U.S. Efforts in Ballistic Missile Defense", 50 Years of Bridging the Gap, DARPA
  12. 1 2 3 "Defender Anti-Ballistic Missile", DARPA Technical Accomplishments Volume II: A Historical Review Of Selected DARPA Projects, April 1991, Section I: PRESS.
  13. ↑ "IEEE History Center: NAIC/Arecibo Radiotelescope, 1963". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  14. ↑ "Pictures of the construction of Arecibo Observatory (start to finish)". National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  15. ↑ "Description of Engineering of Arecibo Observatory". Acevedo, Tony (June 2004). Archived from the original on May 4, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  16. ↑ US patent 3273156, Helias Doundoulakis, "Radio Telescope having a scanning feed supported by a cable suspension over a stationary reflector", issued 1966-09-13
  17. ↑ "Arecibo Observatory". History.com. Archived from the original on March 14, 2009. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  18. ↑ Dyce, R. B.; Pettengill, G. H.; Shapiro, I. I. (April 1967). "Radar determination of the rotations of Venus and Mercury". Astron. J. 72 (3): 351–359. Bibcode:1967AJ.....72..351D. doi:10.1086/110231. Retrieved 2014-02-26.
  19. ↑ Richard V.E. Lovelace. "Discovery of the Period of the Crab Nebula Pulsar" (PDF). Cornell University. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  20. ↑ Hulse, R.A., and Taylor, J.H. (1975). Discovery of a pulsar in a binary system. Astrophys. pp. 195, L51–L53.
  21. ↑ D. Backer; et al. (1982). "A millisecond pulsar". Nature 300 (5893): 315–318. Bibcode:1982Natur.300..615B. doi:10.1038/300615a0.
  22. ↑ "Asteroid 4769 Castalia (1989 PB)". NASA. Archived from the original on September 16, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  23. ↑ Wolszczan, A. (1994). Confirmation of Earth Mass Planets Orbiting the Millisecond Pulsar PSR: B1257+12. Science. p. 538.
  24. ↑ Daniel Fischer (2002). "A comet orbiting a pulsar?". The Cosmic Mirror (244).
  25. ↑ Harmon, J.K., M.A. Slade, R.A. Velez, A. Crespo, M.J. Dryer, and J.M. Johnson (1994). Radar Mapping of Mercury's Polar Anomalies. Nature. p. 369.
  26. ↑ Staff (15 January 2008). "Life's Ingredients Detected In Far Off Galaxy". ScienceDaily (ScienceDaily LLC). Archived from the original on April 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-29. [Article] Adapted from materials provided by Cornell University.
  27. ↑ Larry Klaes (30 November 2005). "Making Contact". Ithaca Times. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  28. ↑ Geaorge Cassiday. "The Arecibo Message". The University of Utah: Department of Physics. Archived from the original on July 17, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
  29. ↑ J. Tarter (2001). The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Vol. 39, pp. 511–548 DOI: 10.1146/annurev.astro.39.1.511
  30. ↑ Peter Backus (14 April 2003). "Project Phoenix: SETI Prepares to Observe at Arecibo". Space.com. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  31. ↑ "Einstein@Home new discoveries and detections of known pulsars in the BRP4 search". Einstein@Home. August 27, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
  32. ↑ Steve Blank "Secret history of Silicon Valley" talk
  33. ↑ "ARRL; Moonbounce for everyone". Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  34. ↑ Andrew J. Butrica (1996). "NASA SP-4218: To See the Unseen - A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy". NASA. Archived from the original on 2007-08-23. Retrieved 2014-08-06.
  35. ↑ Robert Roy Britt (20 December 2001). "NASA Trims Arecibo Budget, Says Other Organizations Should Support Asteroid Watch". Space.com. Imaginova. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  36. ↑ Roger Blandford; Senior Review Committee, Division of Astronomical Sciences, National Science Foundation (22 October 2006). "From the Ground Up: Balancing the NSF Astronomy Program" (PDF). National Science Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 26, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  37. ↑ Rick Weiss (9 September 2007). "Radio Telescope And Its Budget Hang in the Balance". The Washington Post (Arecibo, Puerto Rico: The Washington Post Company). p. A01. Retrieved 2008-07-08. The cash crunch stems from an NSF senior review completed last November. Its $200 million astronomy division, increasingly committed to ambitious new projects, but long hobbled by flat Congressional budgets, was facing a deficit of at least $30 million by 2010.
  38. 1 2 "Areciboscience.org". Areciboscience.org. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
  39. ↑ Liz Arelis Cruz Maisonave. "Buscan frenar cierre de Radiotelescopio en Arecibo". El Vocero (in Spanish). Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  40. ↑ "Senado aprueba emisión de bonos de $450 millones" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. 14 November 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  41. ↑ Gerardo E, Alvarado León (10 August 2008). Gobernador firma emisión de bonos. El Nuevo Día.
  42. ↑ José E. Serrano (19 September 2007). "Serrano concerned about potential Arecibo closure". serrano.house.gov. Archived from the original on 30 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  43. ↑ "Congress gets bill to save Arecibo Observatory". Cornell University. 3 October 2007. Archived from the original on August 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  44. ↑ Jeannette Rivera-lyles (25 April 2008). "Clinton turns attention to observatory in Puerto Rico". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on September 30, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  45. ↑ "Observatory Donations site".
  46. ↑ "Dear Colleague Letter: Providing Progress Update on Senior Review Recommendations" (Press release). The National Science Foundation. 20 September 2007. Archived from the original on June 28, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-09.
  47. ↑ Arecibo participated in 90 of the 111 asteroid radar observations in 2005–2007. See JPL's list of all asteroid radar observations.
  48. ↑ Chang, K., "A Hazy Future for a 'Jewel' of Space Instruments.", New York Times, November 20, 2007
  49. ↑ Jacqui Goddard, "Threat to world's most powerful radio telescope means we may not hear ET", Daily Telegraph, July 12, 2008
  50. ↑ "Save Arecibo: Write to Congress". Retrieved July 19, 2008
  51. ↑ "12-m Phase Reference Antenna". Naic.edu. 28 June 2010. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
  52. ↑ "FY2010 Budget Request to Congress". Retrieved May 26, 2009
  53. 1 2 "Major multi-user research facilities" p. 35–38. Retrieved 2010 Feb. 10
  54. ↑ "NASA Support to Planetary Radar" retrieved 2011 July 7
  55. ↑ "SRI International to manage Arecibo Observatory". Cornell Chronicle. 3 June 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-11.
  56. ↑ "Management and Operation of the NAIC" retrieved 2013 Apr 6
  57. ↑ "Dear Colleague Letter: Concepts for Future Operation of the Arecibo Observatory". 2015-10-26. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
  58. ↑ Visitor Center information
  59. ↑ Caribbean Astronomical Society
  60. ↑ "Ángel Ramos Foundation Visitor's Center Schedule and Hours". Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  61. ↑ "3,273,156 (1966-09-13) Helias Doundoulakis, Radio Telescope having a scanning feed supported by a cable suspension over a stationary reflector". U.S. Patent Office.

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