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Wild Thing

Abel Méndez Talks About the Arecibo Telescope—S2 Bonus Interview

Wild Thing

Foxtopus Ink

Society & Culture, Science

4.83.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! 2020 - already not a great year - was made worse for astronomers when the Arecibo Telescope collapsed in Puerto Rico. Abel Mendez, an astronomer who grew up in the telescope's shadow, talks about the importance of Arecibo and what future plans may bring.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:33.5

At the end of 2020, you may have heard the news about the collapse of the Aracibo telescope.

0:38.8

This giant radio telescope was built in Puerto Rico in 1963, and chances are you've seen

0:44.2

pictures of it, especially if you watched movies like Contact or Golden Eye.

0:49.5

Aracibo has been an instrumental part of understanding our universe and in the search for

0:53.6

extraterrestrial life. It also holds a our universe and in the search for extraterrestrial life.

0:55.4

It also holds a very special place in the hearts of scientists, like Abel Mendez.

1:01.2

He's a professor of physics and astronomy and the director of the planetary habitability lab at the University of Puerto Rico.

1:07.7

And he explained to me just how valuable Arecibo has been over the decades.

1:12.2

Well, the Arisibo Observatory is also used to study planets, star, galaxies, and the rest of the

1:18.0

universe. And Arisibo, among many other discoveries, that the first confirmed extrasolar planets

1:26.6

in 1992.

1:28.3

But the most important job of the Arceiv Observatory

1:33.3

is part of the NASA Planetary Defense Program.

1:38.3

So asteroids are detected by many telescopes around the world.

1:43.3

Once one of this detection is the orbit calculated,

1:49.6

and we know that it's approaching Earth or could be dangerous in the far future,

1:55.0

then that information is given by NASA to the Reservoir Observatory.

2:00.7

So that radar capability allows to send a strong signal from the observatory to the

2:07.3

asteroid and bounce back.

...

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