Observatory has long list of accomplishments
Here are just some of the accomplishments scientists have made using the Arecibo Observatory:
- The first planets outside the solar system
were discovered around a pulsar (early 1990s).
Pulsar B1257+12 is a rapidly rotating pulsar with
three Earth-like planets in orbit.
- One of its first accomplishments: Establishing
the rotation rate of Mercury, which turned out to be 59
days rather than the previously estimated 88 days (1965).
- Detailed maps of the distribution of galaxies
in the universe (late 1980s).
- The first pulsar in a binary system was
discovered (1974), leading to important confirmation
of Einstein's theory of general relativity and a
Nobel Prize (1993) for Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor
of Princeton University.
- Investigation of ice in craters at the polar
regions of the planet Mercury with the radar
system (1990s) and, recently, similar investigation of
the lunar poles for evidence of ice (1997).
- Provided much of our pre-Magellan mission knowledge of the surface of Venus via 1.5 km (1 mile) resolution imagery of the surface through
the planet's cloud cover using the radar system.
- The observatory has made major
contributions to our understanding of the chemistry and
dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
- Discovery of two classes of pulsars:
millisecond pulsars, which rotate several hundred times per
second, and slower-rotating pulsars, which rotate
about once per second. The slow-rotating pulsars
speed through space, while millisecond pulsars move
slowly through space.
- Arecibo Observatory is uniquely suited to
search for signals from extraterrestrial life by focusing
on thousands of star systems in the 1,000 MHz to
3,000 MHz range. No such signals have been found.
- Arecibo Observatory provides a unique
setting for Hollywood filmmakers. The observatory was
the setting for the climactic scenes in the James
Bond movie GoldenEye, and a good portion of the
movie Contact, based on a novel by Carl Sagan and
starring Jodie Foster, takes place at Arecibo. That movie
is scheduled for release July 11, 1997.
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