Look at the sky with a telescope on a clear night. Some high-powered telescopes can see some shadows on the moon. In the exploration of the universe, one kind of equipment is very important, that is, the space telescope we often talk about, the most famous of which is the Hubble telescope, which is an optical telescope located above the earth's atmosphere. Another kind of telescope is a radio telescope. World-famous radio telescopes include Arecibo Telescope on Puerto Rico Island, Eye of the Sky in China and Nanjing? Ay observatory, wait.
However, in America, something puzzling happened. The American Science Foundation suddenly announced the closure of Puerto Rico's famous arecibo radio telescope, but many people said it was a clean-up. Arecibo radio telescope, located in Puerto Rico, has played a key role in the astronomical exploration in this New Year, and also carried the dreams of countless scientific explorers.
Arecibo radio telescope, also known as Arecibo Observatory, was originally managed by Stanford International Research Center, National Science Foundation and Cornell University. Arecibo radio telescope is the second largest single aperture radio telescope in the world (the largest in the world is Tian Yan, China).
Arecibo radio telescope, with a diameter of 305 meters, is a fixed telescope and cannot rotate. When working, it can only scan the relevant band areas in the sky by changing the position of the antenna feed. This radio telescope, once the first in the world, was overtaken by Tian Yan, Guizhou, China in 20 16. The comprehensive performance of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST) is ten times that of the famous radio telescope Arecibo. But when arecibo radio telescope came first, it also created many wonders of the world and opened the first new astronomical window!
Due to the lack of maintenance funds, arecibo radio telescope fell into disrepair. This radio telescope, which used to be the first in the world, is really rusty now, like a big garbage dump, and it's a bit embarrassing!
Since its establishment, arecibo radio telescope has played a super important role in radio astronomy and radar astronomy. Most of the time is spent on radio astronomical observation, and the remaining atmospheric research accounts for 15%, and radar astronomical research only accounts for 5%. Astronomical observation has also made great achievements. Quasars and pulsars, interstellar organic molecules, microwave background radiation and so on were all discovered at that time. It can be said that this radio telescope has really contributed to astronomical observation!
Arecibo radio telescope officially opened on June 1 963165438+1October1. Since then, thousands of scientists have used it. Professor Taylor, a famous physicist, used arecibo radio telescope and hoels to discover the first radio pulse binary system PSR 19 13 16 for thousands of times. Finally, the 20-year orbital period of this pulsar was obtained. Therefore, they also won the Nobel Prize in Physics, which is one of arecibo radio telescope's contributions!
At that time, the miracle created by the 305-meter-diameter large radio telescope could not be summarized in one or two sentences. Scientists have devoted a lot of efforts, and of course, the astronomical science community has also been richly rewarded!
In addition, astronomers Voszan and Foehrer discovered the planetary system of millisecond pulsar PSR 1257 12 with Arecibo telescope in 199 1, which once again caused a sensation in astronomical science. Because this is the first discovery of an extrasolar planetary system, it is indeed a major breakthrough. Of course, there are many more, so I won't list them here!
After its completion, Arecibo has also gained several decades of scenery, because it has become a very sensitive radio telescope in astronomical research and the most powerful radar in the world. Of course, along the way, Arecibo was also very bumpy, because he mentioned demolition more than once. 20 16 demanded the demolition of Arecibo in the name of destroying the local environment. When this idea was not put into practice, the Arecibo reflector of 20 17 was damaged by hurricane, but it still could not strengthen NSF's idea.
On June 9, 2020, Puerto Rico's 165438+ arecibo radio telescope suffered misfortune. A steel cable broke, causing a 30-meter-long crack in the telescope mirror. Therefore, scientific observation has to be terminated, and there is no news of repair so far! In fact, this cable break was not sudden, but the auxiliary cable broke as early as August, and the main cable could not bear more pressure, so this cable break happened and the reflector was damaged. It can be seen that the operation and maintenance party didn't take Arecibo seriously at all!
However, the operation and maintenance cost of such a large equipment is not generally high. NSF has been paying for Xiaojian, and the cost is as high as $6.5438+0.2 million. Because of disrepair and this damage, this estimate of $6.5438+0.2 million can't fill the previous major financial loopholes at all, which is why NSF has been trying to dismantle this radio telescope!
Coupled with the completion of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST) in Guizhou Province, the maintenance personnel in Arecibo, USA think this is a maintenance fee or a bottomless pit!
Therefore, 165438+20201October 9 is undoubtedly the darkest day in arecibo radio telescope. This disaster is a precursor to the end of arecibo radio telescope's mission, and NSF's "conspiracy" has succeeded, that is, arecibo radio telescope will become a great memory for all scientists! Experts say that the dismantling of this radio telescope, which once ranked first, is a great regret in the astronomical community!