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

Re:Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dism... by SiempreViernes on Thursday November 19, 2020 @06:24PM (#25155589)

Despite its large instantaneous sensitivity, Arecibo is not really suited for transient work. In the FRB example Arecibo has a factor 22 advantage in collective area and yet trails Parkes by a factor of 14 in number of discovered FRBs: weak evidence of a unique capability.

And it's too bad the NANOGrav risks getting its results delayed by the inability to extend observations on half its sources, but the loss of Arecibo will not doom the entire project: again not conclusive proof that Arecibo added a unique capability.

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Re:Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dism... by galgalesh on Saturday November 21, 2020 @11:10AM (#25170428)

There is a sea of difference between your initial statement of "having done all the useful things it could do ages ago, and not finding anything new" and your new statement of wanting conclusive proof that Arecibo has "a unique capability".

The "proof" shows Arecibo was still very useful and finding new things and this disaster will significantly delay research. (As a side note; delays in research can easily mean the death of that research as funding is often time-bound)

Somewhere in this there is a larger story of useful projects not receiving enough funding because they aren't sexy enough.

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