The NSF solicitation includes funding for the Angel Ramos Foundation Science & Visitor Center, shown here. “I'm pretty sure they would not disregard the opportunity to have science going on - they're just not going to fund it,” Brisset says. ![]() And despite the lack of support for the existing facilities, it’s still up in the air whether the observatory could continue operations in some form. Brisset told Sky & Telescope that NSF has indicated they could extend UCF’s contract (and thus the transition period) until the fall of next year. With the NSF call for proposals for the STEM education center released just last week, time is short. The center would supplement significant education and outreach programs already happening at the observatory. What the new education center would look like is still unclear: NSF is soliciting proposals for programs, due in December, so exactly who would manage the new facility is still up in the air. “We're entering a transition phase to ramp down scientific and technical activities and hand over to the future STEM education center managers,” says Julie Brisset, who directs the Florida Space Institute at UCF. Two possible designs of one of these ideas, the Next Generation Arecibo Telescope, are shown here, consisting of either 1,112 dishes that are 9 meters in diameter (left) or 400 dishes 15 meters in diameter (right). After Arecibo's collapse, the community rallied and began to study possible replacements. Now, the recent NSF announcement puts the writing on the wall. The contract of the most recent facility manager, the University of Central Florida (UCF), was already set to expire at the end of March 2023 with no clear plans for the future. Even though the community rallied with ideas for a replacement, it was clear it would be many years in the making. Then the iconic 305-meter dish at the observatory's heart collapsed at the end of 2020. Michelle Negron, National Science Foundation The remains of the instrument platform are visible on the telescope’s dish. This photo taken on December 8, 2020, shows damage to the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory, after its collapse a week earlier. ![]() In more recent decades, funding struggles have plagued the facility, but ultimately new partners emerged to manage operations. ![]() The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been the steward of Arecibo Observatory since its construction was completed nearly 60 years ago, in 1963. ![]() When the National Science Foundation announced the establishment of a new educational center at Arecibo in Puerto Rico, the statement sent shock waves through the astronomical community for what the institution would not support.įrom the statement itself, “The solicitation does not include rebuilding the 305-meter telescope or operational support for current scientific infrastructure, such as the 12-meter radio telescope or Lidar facility.” Scientists have programs running currently that use the 12-meter dish to study space weather and the Lidar facility to study Earth’s upper atmosphere. Puerto Rico’s giant eye on the sky: Arecibo Observatory as it appeared during its heyday.
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