1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,680 Mi nombre es Bianca Baker, reporting here for my internship. 2 00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:05,680 You can proceed. 3 00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:06,680 I'm at the Arecibo Observatory. 4 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:07,680 Let me tell you a little bit about its history. 5 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:08,680 The observatory began operating in 1963. 6 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:09,680 It has a 20-acre radar dish and a 1,010-platform suspended above it. 7 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:10,680 I'm going on a tour later. 8 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:11,680 Do you want to come along? 9 00:00:11,680 --> 00:00:12,680 Hi, Bianca. 10 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:13,680 Welcome to Arecibo. 11 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:14,680 I'm Dr. José Alonso. 12 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:15,680 Nice to meet you. 13 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:16,680 This place is so huge. 14 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:32,040 I can't wait to see everything. 15 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:33,040 Where do we start? 16 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:39,800 I have a perfect spot where you can have a great look at the telescope. 17 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:44,360 Wow, this is amazing. 18 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:50,240 I can't believe I'm 550 feet above the dish, but I have a question. 19 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,200 Is a regular telescope like a radio telescope? 20 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:58,800 The difference is that regular telescopes gather light and radio telescopes gather radio 21 00:00:58,800 --> 00:00:59,800 waves. 22 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:01,600 Where do the signals come from? 23 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:06,440 Most objects in the universe, like galaxies, pulsars, quasars, they emit radio waves. 24 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,120 How does the radio telescope work? 25 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:13,680 Radio signals, which are coming from the sky, they will be reflected from the very large 26 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:14,680 reflector underneath. 27 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:19,920 Then they will come up and be gathered into special receivers that will transform them 28 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:21,840 into an electrical signal. 29 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:26,680 That signal will then be sent to the control room, where a scientist will be able to see 30 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:27,680 them. 31 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:29,440 Why electrical signals? 32 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:32,920 So that the signals can be monitored by these special computers. 33 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:36,640 Here's an example of how the signal might be displayed. 34 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,640 It looks like a graph. 35 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:43,240 Bianca, I want you to meet Tapasi Ghosh. 36 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:44,800 She's one of our astronomers. 37 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:45,800 Hi, Bianca. 38 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:46,800 Hello. 39 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:48,800 Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean. 40 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,800 So why would they choose to build a large telescope here? 41 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:52,800 I have some work to do. 42 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:54,800 I'll see you later, Bianca. 43 00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:55,800 Bye. 44 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,800 Do you know we can fit 16 football fields in this area? 45 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:00,800 16 football fields? 46 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,800 They had to find a huge sinkhole to put it in. 47 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:06,800 Also, do you think you can move a 1,000-foot telescope around? 48 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:08,800 I wouldn't even want to try. 49 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:11,360 We knew we couldn't move such a large telescope. 50 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:15,360 So it had to be put in a place where it points in the right direction. 51 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:17,360 Where does it need to point? 52 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:18,360 It points upwards. 53 00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:22,360 But one of the main purposes of this telescope is to observe planets. 54 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:27,360 And from near the equator, you can observe them across the sky for a long time. 55 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:28,360 I understand now. 56 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:30,360 But where are we going next? 57 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:34,360 I'm going to take you under the dish, and then we come back to the control room. 58 00:02:34,920 --> 00:02:37,920 I can't believe they were underneath the telescope. 59 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:39,920 But I can see the sky through it. 60 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:41,920 Why are there holes in the dish? 61 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:44,920 Don't the holes let the radio waves leak through? 62 00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:47,920 No, it's like bouncing a ball off a tennis racket. 63 00:02:47,920 --> 00:02:51,920 If the ball were smaller, then it would go through the hole. 64 00:02:51,920 --> 00:02:56,920 Likewise, radio signal, being of longer wavelength, bounces off the dish. 65 00:02:56,920 --> 00:02:58,920 But optical signal won't. 66 00:02:58,920 --> 00:02:59,920 That's right. 67 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:03,920 We learned about the wavelength of light in the case of the mysterious red light. 68 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:06,480 Bianca, let me take you to the control room now. 69 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:10,480 You will meet our director, and he's going to tell you about alien research. 70 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:15,480 Hi, Bianca. 71 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:16,480 I'm Dr. Altshuler. 72 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:19,480 I'm the director of the Arecibo Observatory. 73 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:20,480 Are you enjoying your tour? 74 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:21,480 Yes. 75 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:23,480 This place is awesome. 76 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:25,480 Yes, it's an exciting place to work. 77 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:29,480 We study things very near, like our atmosphere. 78 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:36,040 We study things in the solar system, like the moons of Jupiter or asteroids. 79 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,040 We even search for extraterrestrial intelligence. 80 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:41,040 Have you found any yet? 81 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,040 No, not yet, but we're not discouraged. 82 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:49,040 It's a very big place to look for something like this, and we have to keep on searching. 83 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:51,040 Why do you look for life in the universe? 84 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:57,040 Ever since the beginning of mankind, we've always wondered, by looking at the stars at night, 85 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:02,600 if we're really alone and we would like to really know, this would be the greatest discovery ever. 86 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:04,600 How do you look for life? 87 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:07,600 Well, one way is to search for artificial signals. 88 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:09,600 What's that? 89 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,600 A signal that is not produced by nature. 90 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:16,600 So if we detect a signal like that coming from somewhere else, 91 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:21,600 we will probably conclude that there's somebody who made that signal. 92 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:23,600 How do you locate these signals? 93 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:29,160 Well, researchers bring special equipment to connect to our huge telescope, 94 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:36,160 and then we point the telescope to thousands of stars that look like and are like the sun. 95 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:41,160 Dr. D told us that sun-like stars are the most likely to have planets with life. 96 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:45,160 He's right, and the ones we know have planets will be looked at very carefully. 97 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,160 Have you ever tried to send an alien a signal? 98 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:50,720 We did that once in 1974. 99 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:57,720 We sent a signal that had something to say about who we are and how we are and where we are, 100 00:04:57,720 --> 00:04:59,720 but usually we listen. 101 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:03,720 Do you really believe there's life out there? 102 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:08,720 It's such a large universe, so many stars, many planets. 103 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:13,720 It would be difficult to think that we're just all alone in this big place. 104 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:17,720 What would you do if you were contacted by other intelligent life? 105 00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:20,280 It would be the greatest discovery ever. 106 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:23,280 But before we go out and announce it to the world, 107 00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:26,280 we would have to confirm and make sure that it is real, 108 00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:28,280 that we didn't make a mistake, 109 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:34,280 and probably ask other observatories to look also and see that it is true. 110 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:39,280 I'm not sure I would even know what to say if I made contact with an extraterrestrial being. 111 00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:40,280 Would you? 112 00:05:40,280 --> 00:05:45,280 If we ever make contact here with an extraterrestrial intelligence, Bianca, we'll call you. 113 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:46,280 Thank you.