1/ In 2019, I had the chance to visit Arecibo @NAICobservatory, a historic radio telescope built into the Puerto Rican forest, with my family. I am very sad to hear it has collapsed- this report from @nell_sci_NPR sums up why it is such a loss. npr.org/2020/12/01/940…
2/ The telescope was incredible to see- a really massive scientific instrument seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
3/ And the Visitor's Center was great for the kids- especially the Puerto Rican school children who came tto visit.
4/ Arecibo's discovery of a binary pulsar led to a Nobel Prize in Physics for Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse in 1974, and meant more evidence in favor of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. 
5/ In 1992 it discovered the first exoplanet. Consider that- only 28 years ago we did not know whether PLANETS existed outside of our solar system. Now we know there are gazillions of them. businessinsider.in/science/space/…
6/ And Arecibo was important to astronomers searching for asteroids that may pose a danger to Earth. wired.com/2017/02/arecib…
7/ When we visited the observatory, we listened to a presentation. At the end of the Q&A, someone piped up, "I heard it was used as a weapon." I thought that sounded nutty, but turns out, the question wasn't far off base.
8/ While for almost all of its life Arecibo was used for science, during the Cold War ARPA funded a study of radar scattering in the ionosphere as part of its missile defense program. darpa.mil/about-us/timel…
9/ Arecibo was powerful enough detect faint radio signals reflected from the Moon. "By observing the timing and direction of these scattered signals, the location of Soviet radar bases and telecommunications posts could be determined." archive.briankoberlein.com/2016/03/15/ast…
10/ Finally, Arecibo was super important to young people and educators on Puerto Rico. It offered so many programs to engage kids in STEM education. naic.edu/pkg/webutils/s…
11/ I hope it will be rebuilt. We don't build enough things like this in our country anymore. Like @kortizceballos, the native Puerto Rican planetary scientist quoted in the @npratc piece at the top of this thread, I hope it is rebuilt.
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