Defunct Arecibo Telescope Finds At Least 70 Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Objects, Asteroids

The land-based telescope at Arecibo Observatory found hundreds of near-Earth asteroids before they collapsed.

2020 saw the collapse of the Arecibo telescope as its enormous cables came loose. The Earth-based observatory was destroyed as a result of the cable breaking.

Operators had to turn the massive telescope off as a result. The observatory could alert specialists about near-Earth asteroids before it shut down.

"Arecibo Planetary Radar Observations of Near-Earth Asteroids: 2017 December-2019 December," a report containing its data, was released in the journal Planetary Science.

Arecibo Telescope's Role in Finding Near-Earth Objects

Newsweek said the Arecibo Observatory, built in Puerto Rico in 1963, had the most giant single-aperture telescope in the world before the Chinese Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), which went into service in 2016.

It had a spherical reflector dish with a diameter of 1,000 feet that was used to find radio waves from space. In the latter half of 2020, it gave way.

According to NASA, near-Earth asteroids are solar system objects with fewer than 1.3 astronomical units (AU), or 1.3 times the distance between the sun and the Earth, from the sun at their nearest point. Around 93 million miles make up one AU. These asteroids are classified as "potentially hazardous" objects or asteroids if their orbits overlap that of the Earth and are larger than 460 feet in diameter.

Over 29,000 known near-Earth asteroids and 2,270 known potentially dangerous asteroids-150 of which are reportedly more significant than 0.6 miles in diameter-are also known.

(Photo: RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP via Getty Images)
This aerial view shows the damage at the Arecibo Observatory after one of the main cables holding the receiver broke in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, on December 1, 2020. - The radio telescope in Puerto Rico, which once starred in a James Bond film, collapsed Tuesday when its 900-ton receiver platform fell 450 feet (140 meters) and smashed onto the radio dish below.

ALSO READ: United States Won't Rebuild the Arecibo Observatory Telescope Ever Again; Here's Why 

Arecibo Telescope Finds at Least 70 Harmful Asteroids

According to Science Alert's report, researchers used the data from Arecibo Observatory between December 2017 and December 2019.

The enormous, wrecked observatory captured one last ominous asteroid warning before it was destroyed.

Also revealed by the massive telescope's data is the presence of more than 190 near-Earth asteroids. According to the latest analysis, almost 70 of them might be harmful.

It is anticipated that most of these asteroids will be 4.65 million miles from Earth.

This indicates that they are 20 times further away from the moon than the planet is on average.

NASA has made it clear that these asteroids do not now pose a threat to Earth. According to the international space union, the earth won't be struck by dangerous asteroids in the next 100 years.

Should Everyone Worry?

Despite this, reports point out that space experts will closely watch the asteroids to consider the possibility that they may veer off course.

The recent groundbreaking DART mission, which saw a man-made space object blast an asteroid off course as a planetary defense test, is also reported to have benefited from Arecibo data.

The telescope was also used to deliver the first transmission to extraterrestrials in 1974, and the newly discovered data has some highly intriguing findings.

A space object known as an equal mass asteroid, 2017 YE5, which is composed of two separate space pebbles circling one another as they travel through space, was among the group.

The rock is extremely reflective of radar signals, which makes scientists suspect it contains ice.

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