Announcements ✦ Science Highlights ✦ Recent Events

Arecibo Observatory

Winter Newsletter 2021 Vol. 5
 

Have a Magical Holiday Season

Best wishes from all of us at the Arecibo Observatory! May your holidays be filled with cheer, warm memories, and happiness.
- Arecibo Team

Change in Leadership

at the Florida Space Institute

Introducing the New Director of the Florida Space Institute: Dr. Julie Brisset
“I am excited to support Arecibo’s efforts to restore and expand its facilities as we aim for a continued and renewed focus on the great science output that is currently being produced by the Arecibo team.” - Dr. Julie Brisset

#AOScienceNow

January 2022

AO’s Big Data project wins HPCWire Readers’ Choice Award for Preservation of Observatory Data

The AO Big Data program, established in 2019, was designed to improve analysis and management of the rich AO dataset collected over the past 50+ years. + Read More

AO Radio Astronomy Observations to Resume in January 2022 with the 12-m dish

AO’s 12-m radio telescope has completed commissioning and will begin regular observations in January 2022. More details and initial results: +Read More

New Technology for LIDAR studies awarded through UCF’s Jump Start Fund

Through a Jump Start Award from UCF, the team will establish a world-class facility to implement innovative atmospheric-sensing technology in Puerto Rico. +Read More

AO Callisto Solar Spectrometer Catches Intense Solar Flare

The Callisto Solar Radio Spectrometer that was recently installed at AO was monitoring the Sun when it captured the solar flare that was followed by a fast and wide coronal mass ejection on October 28, 2021. +Read More


    The Arecibo Observatory at the Upcoming 239th AAS Meeting

Be sure to check out the AO Booth, talks by AO scientists, the AO Plenary Sessions, and two AO Special Sessions:

+Read More

Commemorating the Legacy Telescope

One Year After its Collapse

NSF - Arecibo Update One Year Following the Collapse

"The Biggest Dream" - Documentary

The Biggest Dream debuted on December 1st at the Arecibo Observatory and On December 2nd in 11 movie theaters across Puerto Rico. We are working to make the movie available globally. See the trailer and learn more about our efforts to bring this documentary to you: Share The Legacy

You can find the trailer here:
https://www.naic.edu/ao/movie

The Arecibo Science Advocacy (ASAP) group organized a commemorative event for the community on December 1st, 2021 that included:

  • Keynote Presentation “Celebrating the William E. Gordon 305m Telescope: Its History and Scientific Achievements” by Dr. Don Campbell
  • A diverse group of Arecibo users recorded a series of short videos with the title “What does Arecibo mean to you?” that were shared with the community.

Science and Discoveries at Arecibo Observatory

The Joint Meeting of the New York State Section of the American Physical Society and the Astronomical Society of New York featured “Science and Discoveries at Arecibo Observatory”. + Read More

Science Highlights

Science Feature

Beating the Noise: Using New RFI mitigation techniques, the Arecibo Observatory and the Green Bank Observatory detect faint signals from cold molecular clouds + Read More

Astronomy Publications

  • AO Drift Scans: Searching for Fast Radio Transients
  • Multifrequency Study of Peculiar, Swooshing Pulsars
  • Arecibo Scientists investigate variability of Blazar J1415+132
  • AO Scientist Contribute to European Pulsar Timing Array: Gravitational Wave Background Study

Planetary Sciences Publications

  • AO Radar Data Used to Study NASA Mission Target Asteroid (16) Psyche
  • Detection of the YORP Effect on the Contact-Binary Asteroid
  • Near-Earth Asteroid 1999 KW4 Moshup: Planetary Defense Characterization Exercise
  • AO Scientist studies Near-Sun Asteroid 2005 UD polarimetric comparison with asteroids and meteorites

Space & Atmospheric Sciences Publications

  • Air Pollution Concentration Study by AO Scientist
  • F region electric field effects on the intermediate layer dynamics during the evening prereversal enhancement at equatorial region over Brazil

In the News


NASA’s first planetary defense demonstration, the DART mission, was launched on November 24th, 2021, to its target asteroid that had been extensively studied using Arecibo data: UCF Press Release

Education & Public Outreach


AO Hispanic Heritage Month 2021

Hispanic Heritage Month was celebrated by FSI and at AO with a series of seminars by Almaris Alonso, Nicole Gonazalez, and Kevin Ruiz Nieves

Welcome New Staff

Dr. Gebreab Zewdie
Preeminent Postdoctoral Scholar

Space & Atmospheric Sciences Team

Emanuel Rodriguez
Software Engineer II

Big Data Program