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Arecibo Observatory Scientists Help Unravel Surprise Asteroid Mystery
When asteroid 2019 OK suddenly appeared barreling toward Earth on July 25, 2019, Luisa Fernanda Zambrano-Marin and the team at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico jumped into action. After getting an alert, the radar scientists zoned in on the asteroid, which was coming from Earth’s blind spot — solar opposition. Zambrano-Marin and the team […]
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NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission Launching Today Aided by Arecibo Observatory
NASA’s mission to test out a technique to deflect asteroids is headed to a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) that the Arecibo Observatory helped identify. UCF manages the U.S. National Science Foundation facility under a cooperative agreement. Despite the telescope’s collapse in 2020, the data collected from Arecibo has played an invaluable role in past and ongoing […]
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UCF, Leading Research Institutions Receive HPCwire Readers’ Choice Award
Today, a broad coalition of collaborators including UCF received the HPCwire Readers’ Choice award for Best High Performance Computing (HPC) Collaboration across academia, government, and industry. UCF was recognized at the 2021 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis alongside partners Arecibo Observatory, the NSF Cyberinfrastructure the Center of Excellence Pilot (CICoE), […]
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Arecibo Observatory’s Telescope Collapses
The instrument platform of the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico fell at approximately 7:55 a.m. Puerto Rico time today, Dec. 1. No injuries were reported as a result of the collapse, but it caused damage to the observatory dish and surrounding facilities. Extent of the damage is being assessed. “Safety of personnel […]
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Arecibo Observatory Gets $19 Million NASA Grant to Help Protect Earth from Asteroids
BY ZENAIDA KOTALA Knowledge is power and NASA has just invested $19 million into the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to gain a lot of knowledge about asteroids. NASA awarded the University of Central Florida (which manages the site on behalf of National Science Foundation) the four-year grant to observe and characterize near-Earth objects (NEO) […]
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College of Sciences Sets New Research Funding Record
The University of Central Florida received a record $183 million in research funding for 2018. It’s a 23 percent increase from last year and a 37 percent increase from 2015. Among the many projects that helped propel UCF’s research funding to its highest ever are the management of one of the world’s most powerful fully operational […]
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UCF on Track to Become National Leader in Space Research
When the University of Central Florida took the helm of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on April 1, the university entered a new era. “We are forging new ground for UCF,” said Elizabeth Klonoff, vice president for research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies. “We already have outstanding research in planetary sciences, […]
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UCF-led Consortium to Manage Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico
By Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala The observatory’s radar system gathers information about planets, moons, asteroids and comets. (Image courtesy of Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF) The largest fully operational radio telescope on the planet – the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico – will soon be under new management. A consortium led by the University […]