Arecibo Observatory

Arecibo Observatory
a radio-astronomy and ionospheric observatory near Arecibo, Puerto Rico: site of one of the world's largest single-dish radio telescopes, 1000 ft. (305 m) in diameter.

* * *

Astronomical observatory near Arecibo, P.R., site of the world's largest single-unit radio telescope (as opposed to multiple telescope interferometers such as the Very Large Array).

The telescope dish, 1,000 ft (300 m) across, is built into a valley; celestial sources are tracked across the sky by moving secondary structures suspended about 500 ft (150 m) above the dish. The observatory has produced detailed radar maps of the surface of Venus and near-Earth asteroids (see Earth-crossing asteroid), made detailed studies of Earth's ionosphere, and made major contributions to studies of pulsars and hydrogen gas in galaxies.

* * *

  astronomical observatory located 16 km (10 miles) south of the town of Arecibo in Puerto Rico; it is the site of the world's largest single-unit radio telescope (telescope). This instrument, built in the early 1960s, employs a 305-metre (1,000-foot) spherical reflector consisting of perforated aluminum panels that focus incoming radio waves on movable antenna structures positioned about 168 metres (550 feet) above the reflector surface. The antenna structures can be moved in any direction, making it possible to track a celestial object in different regions of the sky. The observatory also has an auxiliary 30-metre (100-foot) telescope that serves as a radio interferometer and a high-power transmitting facility used to study Earth's atmosphere.

 Scientists using the Arecibo Observatory discovered the first extrasolar planets (extrasolar planet) around the pulsar B1257+12 in 1992. The observatory also produced detailed radar maps of the surface of Venus and Mercury and discovered that Mercury rotated every 59 days instead of 88 days and so did not always show the same face to the Sun. American astronomers Russell Hulse (Hulse, Russell Alan) and Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. (Taylor, Joseph H., Jr.), used Arecibo to discover the first binary pulsar. They showed that it was losing energy through gravitational radiation (gravitation) at the rate predicted by physicist Albert Einstein (Einstein, Albert)'s theory of general relativity (relativity), and they won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1993 for their discovery.
 

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Arecibo Observatory — Arecibo Radio Telescope Organization SRI International, NSF, Cornell University Location …   Wikipedia

  • Arecibo Observatory — a radio astronomy and ionospheric observatory near Arecibo, Puerto Rico: site of one of the world s largest single dish radio telescopes, 1000 ft. (305 m) in diameter …   Useful english dictionary

  • Arecibo, Puerto Rico — Arecibo (ah re SEE boh) is a municipality in the northern midwest coast of Puerto Rico and located by the Atlantic Ocean, north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta, and Florida. Arecibo is spread over 18 wards and… …   Wikipedia

  • Arecibo-Observatorium — Das Arecibo Teleskop Die Plattform im De …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Arecibo Vallis — Infobox feature on Mercury name= Arecibo Vallis caption=Photograph by MESSENGER showing Arecibo Vallis and nearby craters type=Vallis latitude=27.5 N or S=S longitude=28.4 E or W=W diameter= eponym=Arecibo ObservatoryArecibo Vallis is a valley on …   Wikipedia

  • observatory — /euhb zerr veuh tawr ee, tohr ee/, n., pl. observatories. 1. a place or building equipped and used for making observations of astronomical, meteorological, or other natural phenomena, esp. a place equipped with a powerful telescope for observing… …   Universalium

  • Arecibo message — The Arecibo message was beamed via frequency modulated radio waves into space at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo radio telescope on 16 November 1974.cite web|url=http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Nov99/Arecibo.message.ws.html… …   Wikipedia

  • Observatory — This article is about scientific observatories. For the suburb of Cape Town, see Observatory, Cape Town. For other uses, see The Observatory (disambiguation). The Sphinx Observatory at the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps; high altitude… …   Wikipedia

  • Jicamarca Radio Observatory — Infobox Telescope bgcolour = name = Jicamarca Radio Observatory caption = organization = [http://geo.igp.gob.pe Instituto Geofisico del Peru] ,Cornell University, National Science Foundation location = coord|11|57|05|S|76|52|27.5|W| wavelength =… …   Wikipedia

  • Radiotelescopio de Arecibo — Para otros usos de este término, véase Arecibo. Radiotelescopio de Arecibo Organización Cornell, NSF …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”