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Allow me to gently contradict the previous responders. The community of radio astronomers is feeling the loss of Arecibo very keenly. I've mentioned this in a

Allow me to gently contradict the previous responders. The community of radio astronomers is feeling the loss of Arecibo very keenly. I've mentioned this in a previous comment [1] so I won't rehash it again, but here [2] is a statement from the NANOGrav collaboration - we have been using the Arecibo telescope on a weekly basis (along with the Green Bank telescope) to observe a large number of radio pulsars for over 15 years now, and when we announce the first detection of very low frequency gravitational waves, Arecibo data will play a critical role. This loss really hurts. The US community is scrambling, and we are going to have to rely on the generosity of our international partners going forward - there's just not going to be enough telescope time to do all the science that we'd judged as very important through competitive review processes. (And that's before we get into the unique radar capability, etc.) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25154898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25154898 [2] http://nanograv.org/announcement,/press/2020/12/02/Arecibo.html http://nanograv.org/announcement,/press/2020/12/02/Arecibo.h...

magicalhippo 6y ago
I mentioned NANOGrav earlier[1] as well. After 15 years they were about to really drive down the noise for each additional year of data. They were worried about a 6 month delay, as it would seriously hurt their dataset. I assume they're devastated by the complete loss. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25046378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25046378
one2know 6y ago
Very suspicious in my mind this happened soon after the Chinese 500-meter FAST telescope came online. Is this what you mean by relying on international partners? Maybe it's time for the US to build a new telescope.
Natales 6y ago
I would also encourage everyone to read what this loss means to the local communities in Puerto Rico [0], and most particularly, to the young kids who fell inspired by it. "Kevin Ortiz Ceballos, a physics student and aspiring astronomer at the University of Puerto Rico, said in an email that it had always been his dream to work at Arecibo. Now he said, “It feels like the rug has been pulled out from under us and our dreams to work in astronomy in Puerto Rico has vanished.”" [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/science/arecibo-observatory.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/science/arecibo-observato...

magicalhippo 6y ago

I mentioned NANOGrav earlier[1] as well. After 15 years they were about to really drive down the noise for each additional year of data. They were worried about a 6 month delay, as it would seriously hurt their dataset. I assume they're devastated by the complete loss. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25046378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25046378

one2know 6y ago

Very suspicious in my mind this happened soon after the Chinese 500-meter FAST telescope came online. Is this what you mean by relying on international partners? Maybe it's time for the US to build a new telescope.

Natales 6y ago

I would also encourage everyone to read what this loss means to the local communities in Puerto Rico [0], and most particularly, to the young kids who fell inspired by it. "Kevin Ortiz Ceballos, a physics student and aspiring astronomer at the University of Puerto Rico, said in an email that it had always been his dream to work at Arecibo. Now he said, “It feels like the rug has been pulled out from under us and our dreams to work in astronomy in Puerto Rico has vanished.”" [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/science/arecibo-observatory.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/science/arecibo-observato...