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The telescope’s 900-ton platform, equipped with equipment, crashed into a reflective dish 450 feet below the ground on Tuesday, the National Science Foundation (NSF) said.
Officials commented that the telescope should be dismantled for safety reasons after the cables holding the giant telescope at the Aresibo Observatory in the air were damaged. In a few weeks, it collapsed.
The Arecibo telescope was one of the largest in the world, the BBC reported.
For the past 56 years, this telescope has been considered a very important scientific resource. The iconic telescope has been featured in several Hollywood movies, including James Bond’s Golden Eye.
No casualties were reported in the crash, the NSF said.
The landslide, which occurred around 8:55 a.m. local time on Tuesday, damaged the reflection dish and surrounding facilities.
The telescope’s reflective radio dish was 1,000 feet wide and the instrument platform hung 450 feet above the dish. The cable connected to the three towers or simply held the platform in place.
The NSF said it had launched an investigation into the incident.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that the top of the three telescope support towers collapsed,” the statement said. The telescope’s support cable also fell when the 900-ton instrument platform collapsed. Preliminary evaluations suggest that the observation of the cables caused great damage to the observatory’s teaching center ”.
The BBC reports that since August this year, two of its cables have been connected to the mechanical platform. Officials were forced to close the observatory after it was taken down.
A review last month also warned that the telescope could collapse at any moment. The review also said that it would not be possible to repair the massive facility without putting construction workers at serious risk.
Officials later said the facility should be demolished. The telescope collapsed before that decision could be implemented.
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