The receiver detects the radio waves and amplifies them, and with this, we can create images. They bounce into the tip, where the waves focus, and the waves finally reach the receiver. So you might be wondering: how does the radio telescope work?įirst, radio waves are received from the object that the telescope is observing.The radio waves then hit the dish of the telescope and bounce off of it. It held the record for the largest for decades until it was surpassed by another telescope called FAST, which is located in China. The telescope consisted of a platform suspended by 18 cables over a gigantic dish that covers an area of nearly 20 acres, and before its collapse, it was the world’s second largest radio telescope with a single dish. Later, it was discovered that the telescope could be extremely useful for the field of radar astronomy. It was built in 1963 by the United States Air Force as a means of studying Earth’s atmosphere. The Arecibo Telescope was constructed near the city of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. This event had impacts that rippled throughout the scientific community, but to understand these impacts, we first need to understand what the Arecibo Telescope was.

In the early hours of December 1st, 2020, the cables that suspended the massive Arecibo radio telescope snapped, and the 900 ton instrument came crashing down to the ground.

Arecibo telescope history