The 305m wide Arecibo radio telescope, situated in Puerto Rico, is the largest single-aperture telescope ever constructed. It was finished way back in 1963. In 1974, the Arecibo message was broadcast from here. The observatory’s list of accomplishments includes establishing Mercury’s rate of rotation (59 days); finding the first solid evidence of neutron stars; the first direct imaging of an asteroid; and discovering the pulsar PSR 1257+12, around which orbit three planets, the first extra-solar planets to be discovered.
dailymeh posted this on October 25, 2011
