SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The future of one of the world’s largest single-dish radio telescopes is in limbo after the U.S. National Science Foundation announced it was seeking someone to operate the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Wednesday’s announcement comes as the federal agency runs out of funds to support the observatory. NSF officials told reporters that the agency prefers that the observatory remain open with help from collaborators that would provide a funding boost.
However, other alternatives include suspending operations at the observatory, turning it into an educational center or shutting it down.
The observatory has a 1,000-foot-wide dish that is used in part to track asteroids that might be on a collision course with Earth.
