By Larry Klaes Any good news from Arecibo is welcome, and Larry Klaes here delivers it. The observatory, threatened with closure despite its key role in the hunt for Earth-crossing asteroids, may have found at least temporary deliverance. Politics seems to have played a role, as Larry notes, but for once with results that benefit science rather than compromising it. Meanwhile, a new study of the Chixculub impact 65 million years ago tells us that a hail of carbon cenospheres -- tiny carbon beads -- may have fallen planet-wide following the strike. The more we learn about past impacts, the more we realize how important a role our planetary radars play in forestalling future catastrophe. What exists on the island of Puerto Rico that is over 1,000 feet across, could hold ten billion bowls of cereal, pick up a cell phone call from the planet Venus, once sent a message to any potential inhabitants of a distant globular star cluster, discovered the first planets around another star, has...

One of the world's largest impact craters (see below) lies under Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, evidently a major player in the demise of the dinosaurs. Chicxulub is 180 kilometers in diameter, the subject of continuing research by the man who identified it, Alan Hildebrand (University of Calgary). So you could say Hildebrand has an idea what massive impacts from asteroids can do to the Earth's surface, having studied the environmental effects caused by this one and mapping the crater's structure to identify mineral, oil and gas resources. That interest has led Hildebrand into an ongoing asteroid hunt, and explains his current plans to build and launch a space-based observatory designed to look for near-Earth objects. The scientist currently uses use a retrofitted satellite tracking telescope in NEO work here on Earth. The instrument, based at the University of Calgary's Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (some 75 kilometers southwest of the city) is an extensive re-build, a Cold War era...