The mighty Arecibo Observatory had one final parting gift for humanity, and it's got astronomers taking a closer look at the sky ⬇️
After collapsing into pieces in December 2020, the mighty Arecibo Observatory has a final parting gift for humanity — and it's a doozy.
Fortunately, none of these newly described asteroids pose an immediate threat to Earth; according to NASA, our planet is safe from deadly asteroid impacts for at least the next 100 years. However, scientists still pay close attention to near-Earth objects like these in case their trajectories happen to shift by some fluke of nature — say, a bump from another asteroid — thereby putting them on a collision course with Earth.
With this new"treasure trove" of data, scientists can better measure these asteroids' shapes, sizes and spin periods, which are crucial metrics for assessing the potential risks that the asteroids may pose to our planet, lead study author Anne Virkki, a researcher with the Department of Physics at the University of Helsinki in Finland, said in a statement.
The Arecibo Observatory was constructed in Puerto Rico in 1963, becoming the world's largest and most powerful radio telescope. Its iconic 1,000-foot-wide telescope dish became world famous in the 1990s after it was featured in movies such as"Contact" and"GoldenEye" . By then, the observatory was already known in the scientific community for beaming humanity's first message to aliens into space in 1974.
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