Méndez didn’t expect that the Arecibo telescope would be rebuilt but says he had hoped that the observatory would continue to receive funding for its other on-site instruments. “We were aware that the NSF was going to make a tough decision., but we were expecting a little bit better than that,” says Abel Méndez, a planetary astrobiologist at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. Many astronomers were disappointed-but not surprised-by the announcement. Instead the NSF is soliciting proposals from universities or other groups that could establish a new center for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and outreach at Arecibo with an annual budget of $1 million per year for five years. Likewise, the NSF’s funding plan will not provide “operational support for current scientific infrastructure” at the Arecibo Observatory, such as its 12-meter radio telescope or its Lidar facility. Last week, the National Science Foundation (NSF)-which owns and finances the Arecibo Observatory-announced that it would not be funding the telescope’s reconstruction. A series of cable failures caused the telescope’s 817-metric-ton receiver platform to collapse onto the dish below on December 1, 2020, putting the telescope out of commission. The Arecibo telescope-located in Arecibo, Puerto Rico-was the world’s largest single-dish telescope for most of its more than half-century of existence. Nearly two years ago one of the most iconic telescopes in the world came crashing down on itself.
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