Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory saved from uncertain fate
Arecibo Observatory, which is the second-largest radio telescope in the world, is under new management . A group led by the University of Central Florida will take over the operations of the telescope from the National Science Foundation, which was considering shutting down the observatory. The telescope's fate had previously been uncertain . Back in 2016, the National Science Foundation announced that it was exploring different options in regard to Arecibo. There wasn't enough funding to continue supporting the telescope, so the NSF was looking at partnering with other organizations, scaling back or shutting down Arecibo entirely. That same year, the observatory was the first to capture repeating cosmic radio bursts , which have helped us understand the nature of our galaxy and the universe around it. This murky situation was made much worse by the events of Hurricane Maria . The hurricane decimated the region of Puerto Rico in which the telescope is located, also called A...