The Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico Collapses
Astronomers and residents of Puerto Rico mourned as an eye on the cosmos shuttered unexpectedly overnight.
By Maria Cramer
Dec. 1, 2020 Updated 12:36 p.m. ET
nytimes.com
The enormous Arecibo radio telescope, a destination for astronomers perched in the mountains of Puerto Rico, has collapsed, the National Science Foundation said on Tuesday.
The telescope’s 900-ton receiver platform, which was suspended by cables connected to three towers, fell onto the 1,000-foot antenna dish sometime overnight, the foundation said.
“The platform fell unexpectedly,” said Joshua Chamot, a spokesman for the foundation, which owns the telescope at the Arecibo Observatory. Officials said they were assessing the collapse before releasing more details. They did not specify when the platform had collapsed or why it fell.
“As we move forward, we will be looking for ways to assist the scientific community and maintain our strong relationship with the people of Puerto Rico,” the foundation said on Twitter.
The foundation announced on Nov. 19 that the telescope had to be torn down after an auxiliary cable slipped out of its socket and left a 100-foot gash in the dish below. The observatory is managed by the University of Central Florida.
“The decision comes after N.S.F. evaluated multiple assessments by independent engineering companies that found the telescope structure is in danger of a catastrophic failure and its cables may no longer be capable of carrying the loads they were designed to support,” the foundation said last month.
On Nov. 24, the foundation said engineers had observed more breaks in the wires of the remaining cables attached to one of the towers that held the platform.
The observatory has served as the vanguard of the search for alien civilizations, and astronomers used it to track killer asteroids.
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