Damage to the monster dish at the Arecibo
Observatory in Puerto Rico last year following
the failure of support cables. (University of
Central Florida photo)
The head of astrophysics
at the Arecibo Observatory has proposed a plan to replace the iconic
radiotelescope – which was destroyed last year due to failure of support cables
– with a bigger and more advanced instrument.
According to Newsline, the proposed Next Generation Arecibo Telescope would be built on a flat 300-meter-wide platform that could be hydraulically tilted to angles of 45 degrees or greater. The platform would contain more than 1000 closely-packed 9-meter dishes, each with its own receiver covering a broader frequency range than the original radiotelescope. The $400 million proposal was presented to the National Science Foundation in January.
