RIVERA-VALENTIN: How cool was that – still, today, in the cartoon? RIVERA-VALENTIN: And I was watching, although I’m a little old – doesn’t matter – I was watching a cartoon about the Avengers, and the Avengers were flying off to the Arecibo Observatory to save it. I love Marvel comics and things like that. It’s like – it’s an inspirational place, you know? Like, I mean, it really has, like, not only these scientific contributions but these cultural contributions. Like, I think I remember in the ’70s, it was used to deliberately beam a message into space, you know, like, hey we’re here. It contributes to our sense of awe, you know, about the universe. SOFIA: And, you know, I also think, just from an outsider’s perspective, like, this telescope does really play a role in our cultural imagination. We don’t have much, but we have Arecibo, and we have the (laughter) our direct understanding of asteroids because of it. Like, the dinosaurs – they didn’t have a space program, so they didn’t get to prepare for anything. RIVERA-VALENTIN: Yeah, right? And we care about where these asteroids are going to be because what if, one day, this thing comes around and gets too close to Earth? But if we can let people know this is going to happen next year, we can actually prepare for it. RIVERA-VALENTIN: We can tell you how far these objects are down to a few meters. We send radar out to it, and that radar comes back. When an asteroid’s coming by, we are pretty much a flashlight that we turn on. At the observatory, we can send and capture light. Most telescopes, most radio telescopes, don’t have the ability to send out light. RIVERA-VALENTIN: So one of the really neat things about the Arecibo Observatory is that it’s a very versatile scientific instrument. Tell me about, you know, what it does, what kind of projects it’s worked on. SOFIA: So let’s step back for a minute, Ed, and get a better sense of how the telescope has been used over the years. I’m Maddie Sofia, and you’re listening to SHORT WAVE from NPR. SOFIA: So today on the show, a closer look at the Arecibo Observatory, what’s at stake with the recent damage and the unique role the telescope plays in both scientific research and popular culture. I need to send them a big box of chocolate or something because they’re going to need this. So the next part that at least came to my mind was, OK, I know what these people are going through. And when you come to your house and you see it broken, obviously, you’re going to feel something for it. RIVERA-VALENTIN: When you’re working at a telescope as a scientist, as an engineer, as anyone at a telescope, that facility is almost, you know, a second home for you. So, you know, what went through your mind when you heard about this damage, Ed? And then it came down and slammed onto the dish, causing a hole to form and a lot of those panels to be broken. In your mind, imagine it kind of like a rubber band because it comes off with force, and it hit the side of the Gregorian dome. RIVERA-VALENTIN: So in early August, one of the wires that helped to suspend the platform in the air came off. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Speaking Spanish). That’s where they were when they heard the news that Arecibo, the telescope, had suffered major damage. SOFIA: These days, Ed’s a planetary scientist with the University Space Research Association at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. That’s how ingrained the telescope is in our culture.
RIVERA-VALENTIN: When you’re walking around San Juan and looking at the art, artists are making paintings of the telescope. It was constructed in the 1960s, and now, Ed says that the telescope has permeated much of Puerto Rican culture. Suspended above is a 900-ton platform that holds a bunch of scientific instruments. The dish is a thousand feet in diameter and covers just about 20 acres. RIVERA-VALENTIN: I’ve heard people say that when they go up to it, it’s almost a religious experience. They even ended up working at the telescope itself for several years.
I have to get to do this really cool science. And getting to know that that type of science and that an instrument so valuable for the entire world was literally in my backyard was something that just told me, OK, this is what I have to do. I remember looking over and just being completely and utterly stunned.
My parents took me up there when I think I was 3. Ed grew up on the northern coast of Puerto Rico near the Arecibo telescope.ĮD RIVERA-VALENTIN: The reason I am in astronomy and planetary science is because of that telescope. The first word Ed Rivera-Valentin ever spoke was luna – moon in Spanish.
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