PRD-028 · Observatories on Earth: where we look and listen from

Status · Accepted 2026-10-22 (rewritten the same day; replaces the never-built 2026-06-09 draft that made ground observatories a fleet category) Date · 2026-10-22 Owner · Marko Closes into · #320 Builds on · PRD-027 (museums: the same data-layer pattern on /earth) · the /science observation and exoplanets articles

Why this is a PRD. It puts the great radio and optical observatories and the deep-space antennas on the /earth globe, each with a card that explains what is done there and links into the science articles that explain how, adds a /science article on how we would detect extraterrestrial life, and adds a "where this is done" block to those articles. That touches data, /earth, /science, translations and e2e, so the shape is agreed before code.

1 · What (operator, 2026-10-22)

1. Observatories are data, not fleet entries (same pattern as museums, PRD-027). One data file: name, place, country, location, official website, kind, status, the year it began work, a short description, two or three highlights (famous firsts and discoveries), the science articles it illustrates, and films where they apply.
2. Pins on the /earth globe, a layer of their own with a chip (TELESCOPES; the existing OBSERVATORIES chip is the space telescopes in orbit). Tapping a pin opens the observatory card: name, place, what it observes, highlights, a website button, links to the science articles, the film line where there is one, and the status (active, historic, under construction).
3. "Where this is done" on science articles: each article an observatory links to lists those observatories with an "on the map" link, the reverse of the card's links (like the museum block on object pages).
4. A new science article on how we would detect extraterrestrial life ("How Would We Detect Extraterrestrial Life?"; operator: the title is about extraterrestrial life, not "aliens") (operator: "think of how we would detect extraterrestrial life"): radio and optical SETI, technosignatures, the 1977 Wow! signal at Big Ear, the 1974 Arecibo message, Breakthrough Listen, what a real detection would need, and how the Drake equation frames the odds. Linked from the SETI-related observatories and from "Are We Alone?". Passes the science-review gate before it ships.
5. Films: only serious films about real science, never action blockbusters (operator: "only through sci movies like Contact"). Contact (1997; the VLA and Arecibo) and The Dish (2000; Parkes relaying the Apollo 11 television) appear as one line on those cards. The Dish is added to the /science watch-list beside Contact.
6. A hero photo on each observatory card (operator, later on 2026-10-22): the telescope itself filling the frame, not the landscape around it. Same sourcing and pipeline as the museum heroes (PRD-027 §1 item 5): openly licensed only, masters/observatories/<id>/01.jpg, the WebP ladder, provenance, alt text in 14 locales. A place with no such photo (Big Ear, demolished 1998; LAMOST and the LMT, no free photo where the telescope fills the frame) shows no hero.

2 · Which observatories (about 34, geography first)

Radio, optical and the Deep Space Network, plus the SETI sites. Active, historic and under-construction sites are all in, marked by status.

• Radio dishes: FAST (China), Arecibo (Puerto Rico, collapsed 2020, historic), Green Bank Telescope (USA), Effelsberg (Germany), Parkes "Murriyang" (Australia), Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank (UK), RATAN-600 (Russia), Nobeyama 45 m (Japan).
• Radio arrays: Very Large Array (USA), ALMA (Chile), MeerKAT (South Africa), GMRT (India), LOFAR (Netherlands), Large Millimeter Telescope (Mexico), SKA-Low (Australia) and SKA-Mid (South Africa) under construction.
• SETI: Allen Telescope Array (USA), Big Ear (USA, historic; the Wow! signal).
• Deep Space Network: Goldstone (USA), Madrid (Spain), Canberra (Australia).
• Optical and infrared: Mauna Kea Observatories (Keck, Subaru and others; USA), Paranal and the VLT (Chile), La Silla (Chile), Vera C. Rubin Observatory (Chile), Extremely Large Telescope (Chile, under construction), Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Spain), Palomar (USA), Mount Wilson (USA), Haute-Provence (France; 51 Pegasi b), SALT (South Africa), LAMOST at Xinglong (China), Devasthal (India), BTA-6 (Russia).

The research set the list at 34 observatories in 15 countries (2026-10-22), with evidence per site (official page or Wikipedia), like the museum rows.

3 · Data shape

static/data/observatories.json (schema observatory.schema.json):

type ObservatoryBase = {
  id: string;                         // kebab-case, e.g. 'vla'
  country: string;                    // ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
  lat: number;
  lon: number;
  website: string;                    // official site, https
  kind: 'radio' | 'optical' | 'deep-space' | 'seti';
  status: 'active' | 'historic' | 'building';
  since?: string;                     // YYYY it began work (first light, inauguration or start of operations)
  science: string[];                  // '/science/<tab>/<slug>' paths
  films?: Array<'contact' | 'the-dish'>;
  evidence: string;                   // source for the facts on the card
};

Text per locale in i18n-src/<locale>/observatories/<id>.json: { name, place, description, highlights: string[], film?: string } (schema observatory-overlay.schema.json). Loader getObservatories(locale).

validate-data checks: schema; every science path resolves to an article; every URL https; every locale overlay has the same number of highlights and a film line exactly where the base lists films.

4 · Names and translations

Same as museums: observatory names follow the facility rule (each language's own form where one exists, e.g. 500米口径球面射电望远镜 / FAST; otherwise the original in Latin script; non-Latin originals are written in the target script), designations stay verbatim (VLA, ALMA, FAST, LOFAR, SKA), the glossary's forms for people and places. Hand / in-session translation into the 13 locales, the overlay checker, then validate-data.

5 · Steps

1. Research the sites (WebFetch: Wikipedia and Wikidata APIs, official sites): coordinates, website, status, the year it began work, two or three highlights with a source, the science links.
2. Write the extraterrestrial-life article (en-US), science review, then translate.
3. Build: data + schemas + validation, the /earth layer (pins, chip, card, ?observatory=<id> deep link), the "where this is done" block on science articles, The Dish on the watch-list.
4. Translate the overlays and the labels; tests; preflight.

6 · Done

• Every observatory renders as a pin and a card; every science link resolves; every linked article shows the observatory in its "where this is done" block.
• The extraterrestrial-life article is live in 14 locales, reviewed.
• e2e: a pin's card opens from ?observatory=, an article's block links to the card, desktop and mobile.

7 · Non-goals

• A fleet category for ground observatories (the 2026-06-09 draft).
• Action films and blockbusters (Independence Day, GoldenEye, …).
• Live observing schedules, visitor information, tickets.
• Space telescopes in orbit: they are already the satellites layer.

References

• #320, PRD-027 (museums), docs/wip/2026-10-22-museum-research/ (the research method)
• /science observation and exoplanets articles; /science/exoplanets/are-we-alone
• /science/watch-list (Contact)