Earth's Giant Ear Marks 50 Years of Listening for Signals From the Cosmos Nadia Drake - Wired
go to original November 1, 2013

SETI@home Science Arecibo Observatory has produced a short video detailing the history of the observatory, how experiments are conducted and ideas for the future. (SETIKAH)

ARECIBO, Puerto Rico — The Arecibo Observatory, home of the world’s largest single radio telescope, celebrates its 50th birthday today. In that half-century, the giant, iconic dish and its three towers have become a symbol of the quest to understand the cosmos and whether we are alone in the universe. Its endurance also points to the ingenuity of the scientists and engineers who dreamed up and then installed a massive, world-class observatory in a Caribbean sinkhole in the early 1960s.

“Arecibo is one of the most powerful and amazing instruments ever made — ever,” said physicist Richard Behnke of the National Science Foundation at a conference celebrating the observatory’s 50th trip around the sun.

... What began as a complex engineering challenge has since become a destination for both researchers and tourists. Now, more than 100,000 visitors come to see the telescope each year. And unless you’re a VIP with helicopter landing pad privileges, which we were not, the journey to the observatory involves traversing 10 miles of winding, narrow roads past colorful concrete houses and thick vegetation.

Read the rest at Wired

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