- A cable broke and on Monday a hole in the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
- The telescope was just opened to study a potentially dangerous asteroid, shortly after Tropical Storm Isaias passed over the island.
- It is unclear why the cable broke, but the facility is closed again as engineers assess the damage.
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One of the most prominent astronomical observers in the world has a hole.
On Monday, a 3-inch-thick cable broke at the Arecibo Observatory, tearing a hole 100 feet long in the reflector dish of the 20-acre radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
The observatory was just opened after a temporary closure due to Tropical Storm Isaias when the cable, which helped support a metal platform, snapped at about 2:45 am ET. Now the facility is closed again as engineers assess the damage, according to the University of Central Florida, an employee of the telescope.
The 3-inch cable that broke on August 10, 2020.
Arecibo Observatory
It was not immediately clear how the cable broke or whether the damage was related to Isaiah.
Astronomers use the telescope to study dangerous asteroids as they fly past Earth, hoping to identify space rocks on a coordination course early enough to intervene before striking.
Scientists have also used Arecibo to search for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. In 1974, Arecibo struck down the most powerful mission Earth has ever sent to communicate with potential aliens.
Then in 2016, the telescope discovered the first recurring rapid radio bursts – mysterious space signals of unknown origin.
The fall of the cable also damaged six to eight panels in the telescopic Gregorian dome: the part that directs its radiation to the points in space that astronomers want to study. It ran the platform that was used to access it as well.
“We have a team of experts assessing the situation,” said Francisco Cordova, director of the observatory, in a statement. “Our focus is on ensuring the safety of our personnel, protecting the facilities and equipment, and restoring the facility as soon as possible after full operations so that it can continue to support scientists around the world.”
The Arecibo Observatory in 2012. The Gregorian dome hangs over the 1,000-foot reflector dish.
Universal Image Group via Getty Images
Tropical Storm Isaias swept across Puerto Rico on July 30, before developing into a hurricane, leading observatory operators to shake the facility for a few days.
They returned earlier this month to study a potentially dangerous asteroid the size of five football fields, which passed the Earth at an optimal distance for the observatory to check it out.
NASA had previously calculated a chance at 1 in 70,000 that the space rock could affect our planet between 2086 and 2101, so astronomers want to track it more to better calculate the chance of an impact. But when a team at Arecibo trained the telescope at the asteroid to determine its shape and orbit, they discovered that it would probably not pass close to Earth to pose a threat in the future.
In those observations, the telescope worked well.
“Fortunately, the storm passed quickly without damage to the telescope or the radar system, and the maintenance and electronics teams were able to activate the telescope from the hurricane lockdown in time for the observations,” said Sean Marshall, an observatory scientist who led the team those radar observations, said at the time.
