US House Recommends Replacing Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope

The telescope had the best planetary radar system in the world, and it contributed fundamentally to the knowledge of the solar system.

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that recognizes the contribution of the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope.

One year after the collapse of the 305-meter radio telescope, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón introduced a bipartisan House resolution that highlights some of the contributions made by the instrument during nearly 6 decades.

González was able to introduce the resolution as part of a bill that seeks to strengthen the supply chains of the US and promote the production of semiconductors or chips.

The resolution was cosponsored by Reps. Darren Soto (Fla.),  Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), Steven Palazzo (Miss.), Michael Waltz (Fla.), Brian Babin (Texas), and María Elvira Salazar (Fla.). 

The radio telescope was the largest single-dish radio telescope until the Five-Hundred-Meter began observing in 2016, in China. It had the best planetary radar system in the world, and it contributed fundamentally to the knowledge of the solar system.

The House recommended the replacement of the radio telescope in the same place and with new technologies, a request that the scientific community has been making since the radio telescope collapsed on December 1, 2020. The resolution encourages the National Science Foundation, the current owner of the facility, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to work with other agencies to study the possibility of making it happen.