Latest Arecibo Observatory Stories

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A team of scientists conducting a long-term study of molecules in galaxies gained a tantalizing look at what is likely a powerful belch by a gorging black hole at the center of a changing galaxy. "The discovery was entirely serendipitous. Our observations were spread over a few years, and when we looked at them, we found that one galaxy had changed over that time from being placid and quiescent, to undergoing a hugely energetic...

Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com A NASA scientist would be a shoe-in at any state or county fair if hosting the "guess your weight" game. Steve Chesley of JPL's Near-Earth Object Program Office has accurately determined the mass of an asteroid from millions of miles away. Chesley used data from the Goldstone Solar System Radar in the California desert, along with the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, to make his findings. He said he first...

MENLO PARK, Calif., April 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SRI International is the new manager of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO) facility in Northern California, home of the Allen Telescope Array. SRI will assume site management responsibilities from the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. "The Hat Creek Radio Observatory has a rich history of important scientific research about space and complex molecules," said Scott Seaton, vice president of...

COLUMBIA, Md., June 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is part of a multi-organization team led by SRI International that has been awarded a five-year cooperative agreement by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to manage, operate and maintain the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The observatory, preeminent for its research in astronomy, planetary studies, and space and atmospheric sciences, is the world's largest and most sensitive...

MENLO PARK, Calif., June 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SRI International, leading a multi-organization team, has been awarded a five-year cooperative agreement by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to manage, operate and maintain the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The observatory, preeminent for its research in astronomy, planetary studies, and space and atmospheric sciences, is the world's largest and most sensitive single-dish radio telescope. The award, valued at approximately $42M, is...

US astronomers said Friday that they are now listening to the skies for the existence of ETs, using a massive radio telescope in West Virginia to scan for signs of alien life on 86 possible Earth-like planets in the heavens above.The giant dish began pointing toward each of the planets this week and will gather 24 hours of data on each one. The 86 planets were gleaned from a list of 1,235 planets identified by NASA's Kepler space telescope."It's not absolutely certain that all of these...

Since the dawn of the space age, humanity has sent 16 robotic emissaries to fly by some of the solar system's most intriguing and nomadic occupants -- comets and asteroids. The data and imagery collected on these deep-space missions of exploration have helped redefine our understanding of how Earth and our part of the galaxy came to be. But this fall, Mother Nature is giving scientists around the world a close-up view of one of her good-sized space rocks -- no rocket required."On...

Radar imaging at NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in the California desert on Dec. 11 and 12, 2010, revealed defining characteristics of recently discovered asteroid 2010 JL33. The images have been made into a short movie that shows the celestial object's rotation and shape. A team led by Marina Brozovic, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., made the discovery."Asteroid 2010 JL33 was discovered on May 6 by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, but prior...

Exactly one week before the world gets a new look at comet Hartley 2 via NASA's EPOXI mission, observations of the comet by the Arecibo Planetary Radar in Puerto Rico have offered scientists a tantalizing preview."It kind of looks like a cross between a bowling pin and a pickle," said EPOXI project manager Tim Larson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Only it's about 14-thousand-times larger and hurtling through space at 23 miles per second." A new...

Idle computers are the astronomers' playground: Three citizen scientists "“ a German and an American couple "“ have discovered a new radio pulsar hidden in data gathered by the Arecibo Observatory. This is the first deep-space discovery by Einstein@Home, which uses donated time from the home and office computers of 250,000 volunteers from 192 different countries. (Science Express, Aug. 12, 2010.)The citizens credited with the discovery are Chris and Helen Colvin, of Ames, Iowa and Daniel...