Home of the world's largest and most powerful telescope for radar and radio astronomy, Arecibo Observatory, set amid the limestone hills of northwestern Puerto Rico, allows scientists to observe phenomena that occur as close as 2 miles above us in the earth's atmosphere - or probe objects 10 billion light years away. The great dish has also captured the imagination of visitors of all ages and interests, including Hollywood producers who featured the Arecibo telescope in the James Bond film, Golden Eye, and the more recent science fiction film, Contact, starring Jodie Foster.
Radio astronomy deals with observation of radio-frequency signals emitted by objects in space.
Radar, which stands for RAdio Detection And Ranging, measures reflected radio signals that were transmitted by an antenna and bounced off objects. The World's Most Sensitive Radar and Radio Telescope. An enormously sensitive collector of radio waves, such as the giant Arecibo radio-radar telescope, was needed to capture these signals. The main dish has a diameter of 1,000 feet, a depth of 167 feet, and covers an area of about 18 acres, or the equvalent of 26 football fields. The reflector surface consists of 38,778 aluminum panels supported by a network of steel cables strung across a natural limestone sinkhole.