It is common to receive visible light. At present, many countries have their own large astronomical telescopes. Of course, in order to eliminate the influence of the atmosphere, NASA launched a telescope into orbit around the earth, which is more conducive to astronomical observation. At present, the Hubble telescope is running. NASA expects to launch the Webber telescope next year to replace the Hubble telescope for sky observation. Many celestial bodies not only emit visible light, but also emit a lot of radio signals, which need to be received by radio telescopes, especially some extreme celestial bodies, such as neutron stars.
Speaking of "Eye of the Sky", people's first impression should be China's "500-meter spherical radio telescope", which is located in the mountains of Guizhou Province. It was conceived by China astronomer Nan Zai 1994. After 22 years of design, construction and construction, it was put into use in 20 16, and "eye of the sky" has become the largest single-aperture radio telescope so far, and its performance far exceeds that of the United States.
Before FAST, arecibo radio telescope in the United States was also called the eye of the sky. This large radio telescope was built and put into use in 1963. At that time, its aperture could reach 350 meters, which was very remarkable.
To celebrate the completion and use of the telescope, Arecibo Telescope also launched a binary star signal aimed at the globular cluster M 13 which is 25,000 light years away from us. It is rich in content, including human appearance, DNA double helix structure, basic structure of solar system, telescope aperture wavelength and other information. If this signal is finally received by extraterrestrial life, then they can judge the basic information of human beings and the basic structure of living star system through the signal content.
Arecibo radio telescope's observations can be described as fruitful. Astronomers have made many important discoveries with the help of this large-caliber radio telescope. For example, 1974 discovered the first radio pulse binary system, and in the 1990s, with the help of this telescope, the first planetary system outside our solar system was discovered. At that time, we knew that humans might not be alone. Looking up at the starry sky at night, you can see almost all the stars, and there may be a planetary system around them. Perhaps a planet has also given birth to life and developed wisdom and civilization, and at this moment, I just look up at the starry sky.
In addition to scientific research, arecibo radio telescope receives more than 654.38+million tourists every year, especially the golden eye of 007 series, which completely separates Arecibo from the circle.
However, with the development, arecibo radio telescope, once the "eye of the sky", fell into disrepair for a long time, mainly because the maintenance cost was too high, and it began to become a dump in everyone's mouth. Especially in 2020, the cable was broken several times in succession, and the mirror was seriously damaged. Especially in the collapse of 65438+February 2020, the equipment platform weighing 900 tons directly hit the transmission electron microscope, completely withdrawing Arecibo from the historical stage.
The collapse of Arecibo telescope is actually witnessing the rise of "Eye of the Sky" in China, and it will also spread to the scientific community all over the world on April 1 20265438. Of course, China's Eye of the Sky should also learn from Arecibo's development and avoid its end.
Large-aperture radio telescopes can receive very weak radio signals and find pulsars around us. Pulsars can be used as beacons for future human interplanetary navigation and can play a role in positioning. At the same time, "Eye of the Sky" also has the function of searching for extraterrestrial civilization. After all, when a biological civilization develops to a certain scale, its production and learning process will inevitably release signals, and the "eye of the sky" can receive and distinguish the difference between this signal and the signal naturally formed by celestial bodies.
Some friends say that a large radio telescope is very dangerous and may bring disaster, but in fact, this radio telescope is more like an ear, receiving signals from the depths of the universe than emitting signals from the earth. There is no need to worry too much about this.
The once "eye of the sky" Arecibo telescope reached its peak, but with the passage of time, it has become an inter-generational product, and the maintenance cost and scientific output in the later period have long been out of proportion, so it is understandable to become a garbage dump.
Text/science black hole, image source network intrusion.