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ZL2VAL > SETI 05.09.04 14:03l 77 Lines 2964 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 9F0126ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Arecibo to map galaxy
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DB0WUE<DK0WUE<F5GI<F6KMO<EA5DVS<EA5AKC<7M3TJZ<SP7MGD<
ZL2TZE<ZL2AB
Sent: 040905/1039Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:46946 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : SETI@WW
*Scientists to Map Known Universe *
*By Frank Griffiths*
Associated Press
posted: 03 September 2004
10:58 am ET
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The radio telescope at Puerto Rico's
Arecibo Observatory will begin mapping the known galaxy on Friday,
scientists said.
The radio telescope, the world's most sensitive listening device that is
powerful enough to hear planets forming several billion lights years
away, received six more radio receivers to expand its range.
The $1 million upgrade, nicknamed the ALFA project, was completed a few
weeks ago and 12 scientists will begin using the telescope Friday to map
the night sky for future generations, astronomer Dan Werthimer said.
Arecibo expects to find thousands of new pulsars, supernovas, black
holes and planets.
The map, with its collection of detailed data about location, identity
and properties of what is in space, will go far beyond anything
currently in use, researchers say. No such map has been made until now
because the telescope had a limited field of view.
"The new upgrade is like having seven Arecibo observatories at once,"
Werthimer said. "You can see seven different parts of the galaxy
simultaneously. The mapping will be seven times faster."
The mapping could be completed in a few months if the observatory
devoted all of its telescope hours to the ALFA project, said Sixto
Gonzalez, observatory director. However, the process is likely to take
at least two years to allow other astronomers to work on other projects
like searching for extraterrestrial life, he said.
ALFA, which stands for the Arecibo L-Band Feed Array, discovered its
first pulsar last month during a test run, Gonzalez said.
The 1,000-foot-wide parabolic receiver -- composed of 38,000 aluminum
tiles -- allows researchers to listen to sounds in space instead of
depending on optics, like the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
The information gathered will be compiled in a worldwide database
scientists can access on the Internet, scientists say.
The observatory and its gargantuan dish were built in 1963 by the
Department of Defense. It is now run by Cornell University under the
National Foundation of Science.
The telescope's 1974 discovery of a twin neutron stars won a pair of
scientists the Nobel Prize in 1993 by proving Albert Einstein's theory
of gravity waves. Other finds include ice on Mercury and the first known
planets outside our solar system.
However, the dish is best known for its cameo appearances in such films
as "Contact" and the James Bond adventure "Golden Eye," although the
search for alien life takes up less than 1 percent of the telescope's
time.
73 - Alan, ZL2VAL @ ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
zl2val@qsl.net
Message timed: 22:38 on 2004-Sep-05
Old Age
-------
Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to
know
"why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads
weren't paved.
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