What Really Happened at Arecibo

[jedishrfu]

TL;DR Summary

Analysis of the Arecibo telescope collapse

 

[Baluncore]

Arecibo was 305m (1000 ft) diameter.

The very similar FAST radio telescope in China is 500 m diameter.

There is a comparison here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Spherical_Telescope

 

[The Bill]

The video shows as unavailable for me here in the forum. Reading your post source code, it looks like it's a link to Practical Engineering's video on the topic, yes?

 

[jedishrfu]

yes its the practical engineering channel of youtube.

This is the second time my links have broken. I'm thinking its due to our recent merge.

 

[Borg]

yes its the practical engineering channel of youtube.

This is the second time my links have broken. I'm thinking its due to our recent merge.

When I reply to your original message, I see this in the YouTube link - 3oBCtTv6yOw, list: WL.
The comma and the stuff after it are breaking it.

 

[jedishrfu]

Yeah, I don't know where they came from.

 

[Tom.G]

You can Right-Click on the Video Unavailable message, then select "Copy Video URL".
Paste the copied URL into the address bar of your browser, and hit "Enter" on your keyboard. Then the magic happens and you have the video!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[jedishrfu]

When I reply to your original message, I see this in the YouTube link - 3oBCtTv6yOw, list: WL.
The comma and the stuff after it are breaking it.

Thanks @Borg that was it. Now I just have to figure how that extra stuff got there.

 

[Baluncore]

I posted the correct link in post #2, but a moderator removed it without explanation.

 

[jedishrfu]

Sorry @Baluncore that was me, it appeared in your post as text ie was missing the media tags so I deleted it.

I did fix my original post after @Borg pointed out the issue with the url. I need to figure out if it was me and how I got the link initially or not.

Rather than continue to belabor my poorly executed post can we get back to our regularly scheduled thread?

I felt the Youtuber did a great job explaining what happened at Arecibo. I do wish they would build a new bigger, better and more modern scope there otherwise they’ll have to reboot the Goldeneye and Contact movies removing the Arecibo scenes and the Nintendo Goldeneye game too.

 

[cjl]

Practical engineering is a fantastic channel. Definitely worth watching all of his videos.

 

[sophiecentaur]

I do wish they would build a new bigger, better and more modern scope there

I suspect that would be easier to do in space - or, given a few years, on the Moon (cheap construction methods and a fantastic choice of craters). With a rotation rate of 28 times that of the Earth, they could do some really good long exposures.

 

[jedishrfu]

True, but having it back would give us a resource we've depended on for a long time. Most of the newer space scopes are focused on using shorter wavelengths, not radio waves.

 

[Baluncore]

True, but having it back would give us a resource we've depended on for a long time.

Arecibo reached the end of it's service life. We have looked at that strip of the sky for long enough. It is now time to select a different latitude.

Most of the newer space scopes are focused on using shorter wavelengths, not radio waves.

What do you call "radio waves"? Arecibo only worked up to 5 GHz. Radio astronomy extends above 100 GHz.

 

[Borg]

I suspect that would be easier to do in space - or, given a few years, on the Moon (cheap construction methods and a fantastic choice of craters). With a rotation rate of 28 times that of the Earth, they could do some really good long exposures.

Plus, no hurricanes!

 

[jedishrfu]

Sorry, Arecibo is known as a radio telescope in popular parlance, and that's why I used radio waves to refer to what it captured.

 

[anorlunda]

I suspect that would be easier to do in space

Let imagination run wild. I read a proposal in the 1970s to make a light sail spacecraft . It would be made of aluminum, only 2 atoms thick. Its diameter would be bigger than the moon, yet the whole thing would mass only a few grams. For propulsion, it would be pumped by lasers in close solar orbit. It could achieve 0.3 c before leaving the solar system. But for the rest of the voyage, the sail would be free to act as a reflector dish.

Unlike FTL travel, that wild dream is only impossibly difficult (small i) not Impossible (capital I).

 

[sophiecentaur]

Its diameter would be bigger than the moon,

I would have thought something a mere few km across at L2 would be ideal. Plenty of room at L2, with a bit of crafty station keeping. Plus the 'dish' would be steerable.