![]() ![]() We were young enough that we didn’t know we couldn’t do it.ĭaniel Altschuler, former Arecibo director: People came to look at the wonder. We were in the position of trying to do something that was impossible. ![]() When we were talking about building it back in the late ’50s, we were told by eminent authorities it couldn’t be done. William Gordon (at Arecibo’s 40th anniversary, 2003): I do not know how we ever built it. All interviews have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Pioneering figures Gordon and astrophysicist Thomas Gold are no longer alive, but their voices appear here thanks to oral histories archived at the Niels Bohr Library at the American Institute of Physics (AIP). That Arecibo would become the world’s most iconic radio telescope, discovering exotic stars and alien worlds, was almost an accident of history.Īstronomy talked to Arecibo researchers who worked at the telescope throughout its long history. military’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which was interested in using it to track nuclear missile launches. Conceived by Cornell University electrical engineer William Gordon as an enormous radar to study the ionosphere, the facility was managed by Cornell and funded by the U.S. Upon opening in 1963, the telescope was called the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory. ![]() 1, 2020, it was a tragic end to a living monument with a storied history. When the receiving platform at the legendary Arecibo Observatory came crashing down in a 900-ton heap of twisted metal on Dec. ![]()
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