Space Exploration

On December 1st, 2020, it was announced that the telescope at the Arecibo Observatory collapsed completely. The Arecibo Observatory, based in Puerto Rico, had one of the world’s largest single-dish radio telescopes with a diameter of 305 meters (1,000 feet) and was a leading contributor to a range of astronomy-related sciences. The telescope had partially collapsed in early November 2020 after a main cable snapped, leading the National Science Foundation to announce plans to decommission and disassemble the telescope, and it is now clear with the most recent collapse that the telescope is far beyond any hope of repair. Luckily, no injuries have been reported due to the collapse, but it’s still a major blow to the scientific community. I posted a few interesting articles on the Arecibo’s recent collapse down bellow, but I first wanted to take the time to recognize and appreciate its accomplishments for the past 57 years since its establishment in 1963.

The Arecibo telescope was used in everything from radio and radar astronomy to atmospheric and planetary sciences. Here is a link to a page on the Arecibo Observatory’s website with a timeline of Arecibo’s greatest accomplishments (and there are far more accomplishments not included in this list; you’ll probably find quite a few astrophysicists and astronomers that have used data from its archives in their research): arecibo accomplishments (naic.edu)

From establishing Mercury’s rotation rate and detecting the first binary pulsar and exoplanet to sending out the “Hello” message (Arecibo Message | SETI Institute) and appearing in pop culture (James Bond GoldenEye and the movie Contact to name a few), this telescope was a major contributor to a variety of fields and disciplines.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Arecibo Observatory, I highly recommend checking out the bottom link that I posted, the Arecibo Observatory’s website. Under the Science tab, you can find research Arecibo has contributed to in various fields of astronomy, atmospheric sciences, and planetary sciences.

Arecibo Observatory Telescope Collapses, Ending An Era Of World-Class Research : NPR

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico collapses ahead of planned demolition – CNN

Arecibo Observatory is shutting down — here are some of the most groundbreaking discoveries it inspired, including one that led to a Nobel Prize | BusinessInsider India

NEW Grid | The Arecibo Observatory (naic.edu)

Author: Amélie Sharples

Yesterday, on October 20th, 2020, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made contact with Bennu, an asteroid around 2 hundred million miles away from Earth. Its robotic arm extended outwards, and as it touched down on the loose, rocky surface it collected a sample from the asteroid, which it will now endeavor to return to Earth by 2023. Now I want to start by addressing perhaps the most obvious question: Why is this important?

This won’t have been the first sample we’ve collected of asteroid material. In fact, we’ve got meteorites in our sample collections that broke off from asteroids, braved the burning descent through Earth’s atmosphere, and managed to stay more or less in one piece upon impact. But what are we left with? The material that survived would not only have had to make it through each of these steps, but it would have also become contaminated in the process. As of yet, the sample collected from Bennu will be our first pristine, uncontaminated sample of the material from an asteroid that could give us precious insight into the origin of life, the conditions of our early Solar System, and the array of natural resources we could tap into when considering asteroid mining.

So that’s a brief overview of the who (OSIRIS-Rex mission team), what (collecting a sample from Bennu), when (yesterday!), where (asteroid Bennu, 200,000,000 miles away), and why (above). And I could spend a lot more time talking about the various steps of the mission and its goals and impacts, but I think it’s time to turn you over to the experts involved in this mission. Their work is fascinating, and many have spent over a decade working towards this very moment. I encourage you to check out the link to the mission website posted down below and to watch the NASA Science Live video with three experts answering questions on the mission. Both sources include footage from the SamCam attached to the spacecraft, where we can see the actual process of sampling taking place!

OSIRIS-REx mission website: https://www.asteroidmission.org/objectives/

Author: Amélie Sharples