It was on this observatory that mankind sent friendly greetings to potential alien civilizations for the first time.
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Editor’s note: The National Science Foundation recently announced that one of the world’s most famous astronomical telescopes, the Arecibo Observatory in northwestern Puerto Rico, has been suspended. The Arecibo Observatory suffered a loose reinforcement accident in August this year, and it completely collapsed from the evening of November 30 to the early morning of December 1. “New York Times” reporters went to the scene during the accident in August, recorded the scene at the time, and reviewed the important value of Arecibo Observatory in human history. This article is from The New York Times, author Dennis Overbye, the original title is “A Rip in the Fabric of Interstellar Dreams”.
The Arecibo Observatory collapsed on August 11, 2020. 250 of the 38,778 aluminum panels on the mirror surface were smashed | Image from “New York Times”
Go to the Observatory
On the way to the Arecibo Observatory in northwestern Puerto Rico, there are farmland and rainforest along the way, and chickens can be seen crossing the road from time to time. Then suddenly, we reached the top of the mountain: fences, guards, reflective white buildings and towers, just like the nest of the super villain in the “007” movie.
The Arecibo Observatory hangs in the sky like a flying saucer, and is supported by auxiliary steel cables from three towers. Below the observatory is a five-hundred-foot deep valley with a telescope reflector used to receive signals from the universe.
In early August this year, an auxiliary cable broke, causing the triangular structure of the Arecibo Observatory to lose its balance and the observatory collapsed. The antenna had a button of nearly a hundred feet open on the reflector, and the observatory and reflector had to be suspended.
“Amazing Astronomical Equipment”
For more than half a century, the Arecibo Observatory has been one of the important symbols of interstellar exploration. It was built in 1963 and is an important tool for searching for and receiving signals of extraterrestrial wisdom, reflecting the human desire for extraterrestrial civilization.
In 1974, astronomers sent a message to a group of stars called Messier 13 at the Arecibo Observatory (but given that it takes 25,000 years to propagate, we have to wait at least 50,000 years for a response) . Astronomers also use this observatory and telescope reflector to measure asteroids passing by the earth and measure the rotation speed of Mercury. By deciphering the distant pulse signal received by the reflector, they hope to discover the secrets of the depths of the universe.
The official name of this observatory is “National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center” (National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center). It has been the world’s largest radio telescope for many years until the completion of China’s “Sky Eye” in 2016 (reflector diameter of 1600 Ft) before squeezing the Arecibo Observatory from the championship. Michael Turner, former assistant director of the National Science Foundation, commented on the Arecibo Observatory: “This is an amazing astronomical device. It is one of our sources of confidence in the scientific field for many years.” /p>
Fixed a problem
On August 10, 2020, a steel cable supporting the observatory was loosened and hit the mirror surface. 250 of the 38778 aluminum panels on the mirror surface were damaged. Fortunately, no one was injured.
A few days later, the director of the Arecibo Observatory, Francisco Córdova from Central Florida College and the director of the Florida Space Institute The director and chief researcher of the observatory, Ramon Lugo, held a press conference through Zoom and said that he did not understand the cause of these three-inch-thick cables breaking. These cables were installed in the 1990s to support more than 900 tons of observatory instruments, and theoretically have a life span of 15 to 20 years.
Arecibo Observatory under construction in 1963｜Photo courtesy of The New York Times
In addition, the two researchers also said that they did not know the time and cost of repairing the observatory. Lugo said it would take several months just to manufacture and install a new steel cable.
Cordova said that the loss of hundreds of aluminum panels is nothing. The biggest problem now is how to balance the entire observatory after the cable breaks. “We have withstood various tests,” Cordova said. He mentioned the various tests experienced by the Arecibo Observatory in history: earthquakes, hurricanes in 2017, current epidemics, etc. “And this (referring to the broken cable) is just another challenge.”
One of the symbols of human exploration of the universe
The Arecibo Observatory is a product of a collaboration between Cornell University and the Air Force Research Laboratory. It was built partly to understand the effects of nuclear bombs in the atmosphere. characteristic. For this purpose, this observatory is equipped with a telescope and planetary radar.
For many years, astronomer Frank Drake has been the curator of the Arecibo Observatory. Drake was the first person to use radio telescopes to send human position information to friendly alien life on stars. It is also the Drake formula (Green Bank equation, a measure of the extraterrestrials that can come into contact with us in the galaxy). He is known as the inventor of an equation for the number of intelligent civilizations that is still in use today-Translator’s Note).
On November 16, 1974, Drake sent a message of nearly 200,000 watts to M13 (the Messier 13 mentioned above, which is a stellar cloud 25,000 light-years away from the earth, with approximately 300,000 stars) To celebrate the upgrade of the observatory system. These messages include 1679 “0”s and “1s”, combined into 73 rows and 23 columns, conveying information about “human beings”, “electric telescopes”, “DNA arrangement”, “solar system” and “decimal”.
Before sending these messages, Frank Drake sent these messages to his colleagues at Cornell, including Carl Sagan, a cosmologist and science fiction writer who studies extraterrestrial life. But none of the colleagues can completely decode these messages.
Now we can only expect that the alien beings who receive these messages will be smarter than us. However, both Frank Drake and Carl Sagan admit that the greater purpose of sending these messages is to awaken human consciousness and let us understand where we are in the universe.Arouse human interest in this weird and mysterious universe.
In November 2009, Joe Davis, who claimed to be a “biological artist” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, connected his smartphone to the telescope of the Arecibo Observatory. The star of has sent the genetic code of RuBisCO, a common plant protein.
In 1974, in the same year that humans sent a message to the universe, astronomers Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse from Princeton discovered the first one through the Arecibo telescope. Pulse Binary Star System. After years of observation and research on this pulsar binary system, mankind indirectly proved the existence of gravitational waves and confirmed Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Taylor and others won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993.
In 1990, Polish astronomer Alexander Wolszczan also made a major discovery at the Arecibo Observatory: PSR 1913+12, a pulsar with irregular motion. Subsequent research showed that there are three planets orbiting this pulsar. This is the first time in human history that an exoplanet has been discovered, and it is also the first time that a planet has been known to revolve around a pulsar in addition to the sun. Today, humans have discovered more than 200 exoplanets through this research, and this research has become the fastest growing branch of research in the field of astronomy.
In addition to scientific research value, the Arecibo Observatory is also the location of many films. Such as the 007 series of Golden Eye and Jodie Foster (Jodie Foster) “Time Contact”, and the American drama “X Files”.
Management and financial difficulties
Although it has been glorious in history, the Arecibo Observatory is declining step by step. The National Science Foundation (one of the management and operating agencies of the Arecibo Observatory), established in 1970, is becoming more and more financially strained. In 2007, the foundation stated that if the partners cannot afford the expenses, the observatory may be closed.
In 2011, Cornell University transferred the management authority of the observatory to partners such as Stanford Institute of International Studies, University Space Research Association, and Metropolitan University of Puerto Rico.
Since 2016, Florida Central College and other partners have begun to take over the Arecibo Observatory, with an annual budget of approximately US$12 million, including funds provided by the National Science Foundation.
Despite management and financial issues, the Arecibo Observatory is still providing a platform for scientific research. A few days after the collapse, Florida Central College issued a press release, Announced how the German astronomical research team relied on the Arecibo telescope and other equipment to discover the gamma rays (a kind of powerful light) in a black hole. This discovery “challs the previously proposed theoretical model.” The development of the research field points out new ideas.
Although the Arecibo Observatory has officially announced its retirement due to the difficulty of restoration, the human interstellar dream will not be extinguished.
Translator: Michiko