The radio telescope at Arecibo was once the largest single-aperture telescopes in the world, at 305m/1000ft across. During its lifetime it was surpassed by the 500m aperture spherical telescope (FAST) in Guizhou, China, which is still in use. Interferometry makes "virtual" large-aperture radio telescopes possible by combining inputs from separate radio telescopes. Such as the Very Large Array (US), VLTI, and ALMA, and the planned Square Kilometre Array.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Kilometre_Array https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_telescope https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/interferometry/

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Arecibo Observatory

    In popular culture

    The Arecibo Observatory appeared in many novels, series and films, such as in the X-Files of Season 2 Episode 1 "Little Green Men", in James Bond GoldenEye and Carl Sagan's novel and related movie Contact.