Future Dimming for Puerto Rico Telescope (Arecibo) - AP [View All]

[Eugene]

Future Dimming for Puerto Rico Telescope

By BEN FOX

ARECIBO, Puerto Rico Dec 6, 2006 (AP)— At the world's largest radio telescope,
astronomers searching for asteroids on a collision course with Earth are bracing
for a more worldly threat: The steepest budget cuts and first layoffs since the
observatory opened in 1963.

Managers are warning staff and outside astronomers to prepare for a leaner future,
with fewer research projects and less telescope time available as they finish a
costly repainting job amid a looming cut in U.S. government funding.

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As the world's largest, it is more sensitive than any other radio telescope and can
detect more and fainter objects in space. By bouncing radio waves off asteroids,
it also charts their location, speed, course and some other characteristics.

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The telescope is so prized that astronomers let out a collective shudder in November
when a review panel recommended the U.S. cut 25 percent of the observatory's $10.5
million astronomy budget next year and consider eliminating it entirely at the end
of the decade. The panel suggested that the private sector or overseas institutions
could pay part of Arecibo's costs

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Full article: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2703723