One recently completed in southwestern China will take over the title of the world's largest single-dish radio telescope when it begins operations in September. Scientists say that despite the new telescopes coming online, Arecibo would remain the world's largest radio telescope with planetary radar and the most sensitive one as well. ARECIBO, Puerto Rico (AP) " The world's largest single-dish radio telescope is nestled deep in the lush green hills of Puerto Rico, where it performs tasks like searching for gravitational waves, listening for extraterrestrial signals and tracking asteroids that might be on a collision course with Earth. And a cluster of radio telescopes was recently installed in northern Chile, where crews are building yet another telescope that will feature the world's largest digital camera. But the outlook is increasingly faint for the Arecibo Observatory, which features a 1,000-foot-wide (305-meter-wide) dish used in research involving stars that led to a Nobel Prize.

Source: New Zealand Herald July 20, 2016 03:56 UTC