RIP Arecibo telescope — you’ll be missed

The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico was the largest telescope in the world for decades. Several discoveries were made using this historic eye on the sky, and now, this remarkable instrument, damaged beyond repair, has fallen silent forever. In Carl Sagan’s Contact, a dramatic scene shows Dr. Ellie Arroway, played by Jodie Foster, looking out over the magnificent Arecibo Telescope. And it was from this location that the human race sent our only significant radio message to alien astronomers on worlds orbiting distant stars. Now, the Arecibo Observatory, wracked by a series of unfortunate events, is due to be demolished,…

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