Tracing the Universe's Most Abundant Atom with the World's Largest Filled-Aperture Telescope

摘要

Among present-day observatories, the Arecibo Radio Telescope represents anextension of Galileo's vision to its logical extreme. With a diameter of 305metres and state-of-the-art instrumentation, Arecibo continues to build on itslegacy of world-class scientific achievement in radio astronomy. This paperhighlights milestones in the remarkable history of this telescope, and alsodiscusses current surveys that are imaging the hydrogen content of our MilkyWay Galaxy, and far beyond, in unprecedented detail.