1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 2 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:10,559 Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Volga bam here for fifty seven years. 3 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:15,320 Speaker 1: The air Cebo Observatory Radio and radar telescope facility, located 4 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:18,360 Speaker 1: about twelve miles or nineteen kilometers south of the city 5 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: of air Cebo in Puerto Rico, was one of astronomy's 6 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:25,960 Speaker 1: greatest treasures until recently. Air Cebo had the biggest radio 7 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: telescope in the world, and its ability to detect distant 8 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: signals made it one of the world's most powerful tools 9 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,880 Speaker 1: for studying both planets and moons in our own Solar 10 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,519 Speaker 1: system and mysterious objects in distant regions of the universe. 11 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:41,839 Speaker 1: Over the years, scientists used it to determine Mercury's rotation 12 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:44,680 Speaker 1: rate and map the surface of Venus, to discover the 13 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:49,360 Speaker 1: first binary pulsar and the first known exoplanet. Air Cebo's 14 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:52,839 Speaker 1: researchers also made important findings about the properties and orbits 15 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:57,160 Speaker 1: of asteroids that are potentially hazardous to Earth. Back in 16 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,240 Speaker 1: four air Cebo was even used to broadcast a radio 17 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: message toward a globular star cluster twenty one thousand light 18 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,360 Speaker 1: years from Earth, filled with data that could potentially be 19 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:13,000 Speaker 1: deciphered by extraterrestrials to produce a simple illustration depicting a 20 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:17,039 Speaker 1: stick figure human, our solar system, DNA, and some of 21 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 1: the biochemicals of early life. The message was designed by 22 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,680 Speaker 1: astronomer Frank Drake with the help of Carl Sagan and 23 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: other scientists. The telescope's deterioration became evident back in August 24 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: when a support cable failed and slipped out of its dish, 25 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: leaving a one hundred foot or thirty meter gash in 26 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: the dish. Engineers worked to try to figure out how 27 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,040 Speaker 1: to repair the damage and determine the integrity of the structure, 28 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:47,120 Speaker 1: but then on November six, a main cable on the 29 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:50,360 Speaker 1: same tower broke, as well, a hint that other cables 30 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: might be weaker than initially believed. At that point, an 31 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,080 Speaker 1: engineering evaluation determined that it would be too risky even 32 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:02,120 Speaker 1: to do more repair work on the telescope. On November nineteenth, 33 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:05,880 Speaker 1: the National Science Foundation announced that the Observatories Radio Telescope 34 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 1: would be discommissioned and dismantled, But before that could happen, 35 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: on December one, the instrument platform collapsed. This nine hundred 36 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: ton instrument platform was suspended by cables attached to three 37 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 1: towers at a height of four hundred and fifty feet 38 00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:26,160 Speaker 1: that's about a hundred and forty above the telescope's massive 39 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: radio telescope dish. It's one thousand feet or three hundred 40 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,799 Speaker 1: and fifty in diameter. The platform suddenly broke away from 41 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:39,000 Speaker 1: its supports and fell. The National Science Foundation has authorized 42 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: repairs to air sebos lied our instrument and a smaller 43 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 1: telescope used for atmospheric science, but rebuilding air Sebos radio 44 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:51,000 Speaker 1: telescope would cost an estimated three hundred and fifty million dollars. 45 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: A National Science Foundation official indicated at a December third 46 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: press conference that it could take years for the federal 47 00:02:57,400 --> 00:02:59,480 Speaker 1: government to make a decision about whether to do that, 48 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:02,920 Speaker 1: but in the meanwhile, they said that the observatory would 49 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 1: not close completely. In addition to operating the smaller dish 50 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,959 Speaker 1: and the lidar instrument, the visitors center would remain open. 51 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: The sudden and shocking apparent end of air Cebo's radio 52 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: telescope caused an outpouring of remembrances on Twitter with the 53 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,960 Speaker 1: hashtag what air Cebo means to me, both from researchers 54 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:25,680 Speaker 1: who had used the telescope, and ordinary people who had 55 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,959 Speaker 1: visited the observatory and been inspired by it. People have 56 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 1: chosen to get married there, and it was used as 57 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:34,400 Speaker 1: a setting in the James Bond movie Golden Eye and 58 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: sci fi drama Contact. Air Cebo was built back in 59 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three at a cost of nine point three 60 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: million dollars, which is close to eighty million in today's money. 61 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 1: It came to exist due in large part to the 62 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: efforts of Cornell University physicist William E. Gordon, who was 63 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 1: interested in studying the Earth's ionosphere. Gordon shows Puerto Rico 64 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: for the site because the sun, moon, and planets passed 65 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:03,640 Speaker 1: almost to rerectly overhead, plus a natural synkhole south of 66 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: the city of air Sebo provided a cost effective way 67 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: to support his design of a spherical bowl shaped reflector 68 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:13,880 Speaker 1: planted in the ground with a movable receiver hanging over it. 69 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: Pretty quickly, scientists realized the observatory would also be useful 70 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,599 Speaker 1: in the then new fields of radio and radar astronomy. 71 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:26,800 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty five, one of the observatory's first great 72 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: accomplishments was to discover that the true rotation rate of Mercury, 73 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: the nearest planet to the Sun was just fifty nine days, 74 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:38,280 Speaker 1: not eight as had been previously estimated. In nine sixty eight, 75 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 1: air SEBO scientists showed that sporadic radio pulses from the 76 00:04:41,839 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 1: direction of the crab Nebulus supernova remnant came from a 77 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: pulsar located at the center of the nebula. Other important 78 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: discoveries followed. In nineteen seventy four, air Sebo was used 79 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 1: to discover the first pulsar in a binary system, which 80 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: provided important confirmation for Albert einstein mines theory of general relativity, 81 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: and for which the astronomers involved were awarded the Nobel Prize. 82 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:10,720 Speaker 1: In In the nine eighties and nineties, scientists used air 83 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: Cebo to make more discoveries about the Solar System. They 84 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: used the telescope's radar to produce the first ever maps 85 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:20,159 Speaker 1: of the surface of the planet Venus, whose thick cloud 86 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: layer had blocked optical telescopes view. They also found that 87 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: despite Mercury's high surface temperature, the planet still has ice 88 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: in shadowed craters at its north and south poles. In 89 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 1: air cebo was instrumental and yet another monumentous first. The 90 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 1: discovery of exoplanets, which are planets outside of our Solar 91 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 1: system orbiting around a pulsar. In two thousand three, air 92 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:49,040 Speaker 1: Sebo provided evidence for the existence of hydrocarbon lakes on Titan, 93 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:53,040 Speaker 1: a moon of Saturn, and in recent years, air Cebo 94 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:57,480 Speaker 1: has continued to gather important information, including helping to calculate 95 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:01,720 Speaker 1: distances that are important for understanding the universe. It's also 96 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: produced radar images of Mars that revealed lava flows and 97 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: other geological features that hadn't been detected in visual images 98 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: of the red planet. Today's episode was written by Patrick J. 99 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: Tiger and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this 100 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:21,279 Speaker 1: and lots of other far seeing topics, visit how stuff 101 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:23,720 Speaker 1: works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart 102 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,559 Speaker 1: Radio or more podcasts. My heart Radio visit the iHeart 103 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:29,240 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 104 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 1: favorite shows.