ARECIBO, Puerto Rico Journalists came to the inauguration of the Arecibo Gregorian telescope last week to capture, literally, a bird's eye view of a scientific wonder.
"The upgrade is to produce science, but what is really exciting is the potential of new science," said Daniel Altschuler, director of the Arecibo Observatory. "With the upgrade and our new visitor center, Arecibo is helping to change science in the public eye. We don't want to be an ivory tower -- we want to inspire the next generation of scientists."
Journalists from the mainland, and from as far away as Europe, took in the history and the future of the telescope during a media day briefing June 14. The briefing, which moved at a rapid pace, was hosted by Yervant Terzian, the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences and chairman of Cornell's astronomy department. And following the presentations by nine scientists, the visiting journalists -- representing such publications as The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Le Figaro -- took tours along the azimuth arm, which hangs high over the telescope's dish to maneuver the structure housing the new Gregorian reflectors. They also explored the rest of the facility and the new visitors center and conducted individual interviews with scientists and administrators.
Using frequencies that range from 50 megahertz (MHz) to 10 gigahertz (GHz), the Arecibo Observatory supports studies of Earth's upper atmosphere, neighboring planets and asteroids, as well as comets and meteors. And beyond, scientists can examine the cosmos billions of light years away, said Paul Goldsmith, director of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center and Cornell professor of astronomy.
The telescope, an astronomical workhorse, is finding the universe to be a boisterous place.
"One person's noise is another person's career," said John D. Mathews, Penn State University professor of electrical engineering and director of the university's communications and space sciences laboratory. Mathews told journalists how, using Arecibo's 430 MHz radar system, he was able to detect cascades of micrometeorites perpetually pelting the Earth's upper atmosphere. These showers are nuisances to astronomers because they create interference for the study of the cosmos beyond Earth.
Mathews reported that the Arecibo radar telescope detected 200 of these small objects in only a two-hour period. Considering the narrow portion of the sky the telescope scans, Mathews feels this finding is very impressive. The sensitivity of Arecibo is so precise, it is the first radar telescope to pick up these micrometeorites before they even make a trail in the upper atmosphere, he said.
About 20 percent of the time used by scientists at the telescope is devoted to atmospheric research -- the original reason for the telescope's creation. Altschuler says that 75 percent of the research now is devoted to radio astronomy, and about five percent is for research using radar, such as mapping planetary surfaces. More than 200 scientific researchers conduct their studies at the facility each year.
While scientists like Mathews look near, astronomers can also look far.
Jo Ann Eder, staff scientist at Arecibo, explained that one of its great accomplishments is the way the telescope has changed our image of the universe -- literally mapping the cosmos.
"This telescope is how we look back into time and see the future," said Eder. "Are we seeing the universe open up or contracting?"
Galaxies are gassy, and by measuring the radio emission given off by that gas, she explained, researchers can accurately determine how far galaxies are from Earth, how fast pulsars spin, and they can obtain an accurate picture of how the universe formed.
"We're using radio emission as a time machine," Eder said.
And we may not be alone.
Jill Tarter wants to find out. As the director of Project Phoenix at the SETI Institute, her research using the Arecibo telescope is involved in taking in radio signals from millions of light years away and looking for signals from extraterrestrial life in likely places.
After about two decades of searching, Tarter said one Arecibo-type telescope is not enough, however, and she is hoping these types of observatories can be built in other places, such as Australia and China, or even the dark side of the moon.
Looking for wobble in cosmic places, Alexander Wolszczan, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State University, explained the enormous potential for the discovery of extrasolar planets. With the new addition of the Gregorian reflector, the telescope, Wolszczan said, is more accurate, giving it the ability to pick up the signatures of distant planets on a long orbit.
The universe's clocks are of interest to James Cordes, Cornell professor of astronomy, who told journalists that by using the telescope, "We hope to find the maximum speed limit of pulsars."
Cordes and other researchers use the telescope to take radio images of the cosmos in various stages. For example, by focusing on pulsars, scientists can learn how pulsars collapse and become supernovas.
And contrary to last year's announcement that there was ice on the moon, the Arecibo telescope found otherwise.
Donald B. Campbell, Cornell professor of astronomy and associate director of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, explained the historical background of the observatory and why it was placed in Puerto Rico. Later in the program, he explained how Arecibo's accurate radar-imaging recently led to the confirmation that no ice exists on the moon.