Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

Re:Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dism... by bullfightonmars on Thursday November 19, 2020 @02:32PM (#25153409)

Well that is fascinating. I am reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

Part of the plot is that a radio astronomer at Arecibo discovers intermittent Alien radio signals originating from the Alpha Centari System. The protagonists can't figure out why the Alpha Centari's are transmitting such strong radio signals and why they are intermittent. It turns out that their planet doesn't have an ionosphere to reflect broadcast radio waves, so the inhabitants instead bounce radio off the moon to broadcast it back to the surface.

Arecibo only picked up the radio signals when they bounced off the moon at the right angle.

The origin of radio telescopes in the 60s must be the kernel for that bit of plot.

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Re:Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dism... by lightlyused on Thursday November 19, 2020 @04:53PM (#25154825)

The Sparrow is an excellent but distributing book.

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Re:Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dism... by twic on Friday November 20, 2020 @04:32AM (#25158811)

Personally i couldn't stand it, because it felt like telling a straightforward story out of order was a trick to make that story seem more interesting than it really was. But i encourage everyone to read it and form their own opinion!

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