Depends on Which Side of the Pork Barrel You’re On

For the past several years, the radio astronomy facilities at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has been threatened with closure. It’s gotten so bad that many staffers have been laid off and the observatory is preparing to shut down a facility that only recently was refurbished at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. The reasons for the shutdown are diverse, but many of us think that they’re mostly political and not based on completely scientific grounds. Yes, Arecibo is getting old, but so are many very useful radio telescopes on this planet. Yet, it alone is threatened with extinction. The refurbishment costs will, essentially, have been wasted, while good science will be left undone.

Today the Planetary Society submitted a statement to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, asking Congress to stem the loss of Earth’s largest (and still scientifically useful) radio telescope.

There are a variety of scientific reasons why this facility should be kept open. It is making real contributions to the study of distant galaxies, pulsars in our own galaxy, the dynamics and chemistry of our own planet’s atmosphere, and—quite importantly— scanning (constantly) for incoming meteorites that might pose a danger to our planet. They’re out there and they’re real.

In addition to the Planetary Society, a number of scientists from Cornell and other institutions planned to testify as to the usefulness of Arecibo to the community. Given the ongoing onslaught of irrationalism in the U.S. and the continuing unwarranted attacks on science among politicos who seem to be more interested in bringing home the bacon to build bridges to nowhere and funding questionable pork barrels, it’s about time our country stepped back up to the scientific plate and started hitting some homers.

Arecibo is still useful. It should be kept alive.