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Images recorded by drone and released on Thursday (3) by the United States National Science Foundation show the moment when the structure of the Arecibo Observatory, in Puerto Rico, begins to collapse. Check out the VIDEO above.
In the images, it is possible to see cables breaking and overturning a platform of more than 900 tons that housed the radio telescope. The structure fell onto the reflector plate, which was about 120 meters below. At the moment of the fall, a loud bang is heard.
The collapse of the Arecibo radio telescope occurred on Tuesday (1st), after the US scientific authorities already announced the closure of the observatory due to structural problems. An auxiliary cable broke in August, and in early November one of the main cables broke.
The image shows the damaged radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on November 17, 2020 – Photo: Satellite Image / Maxar Technologies via AP
Photo from August 11, 2020 shows the damage caused by a broken cable – Photo: Arecibo Observatory via AP
Witnesses report the incident and mourn the loss
The collapse surprised many scientists. “It sounded like an explosion,” said Jonathan Friedman, who worked for 26 years as a senior research associate at the observatory and still lives near it. “Was screaming. It was out of control. I have no words to express it. It feels so deep and terrible“.
Friedman said he ran up a small hill near his home and confirmed his suspicions: A cloud of dust was floating in the air where the structure was, destroying the hopes of some scientists that the telescope could somehow be repaired.
“It’s a great loss,” said Carmen Pantoja, an astronomer and professor at the University of Puerto Rico who used the telescope for her doctorate. “It was a chapter in my life.”
View of the Arecibo Observatory, one of the most important telescopes in the world, on July 13, 2016 – Photo: Danica Coto / Archivo / AP
The telescope was built in the 1960s with money from the Department of Defense. It has withstood hurricanes, tropical humidity and a series of recent earthquakes in its 57 years of operation..
The telescope was used to track asteroids, conduct research, and determine if a planet is potentially habitable. It also served as a training ground for graduate students and attracted 90 thousand visitors a year.
“The world without an observatory loses, but Puerto Rico loses even more,” said Abel Méndez, professor of physics and astrobiology at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo, who used the telescope for the research.
Near 250 scientists from around the world were using the observatory when it closed in August, including Mendez, who was studying stars for habitable plants.
“I’m trying to recover. I’m still very upset,” said the physics teacher.
