A massive radio telescope made famous as the backdrop for a pivotal scene in James Bond movie “GoldenEye” and other Hollywood hits were suddenly found out of order after cables were mysteriously knocked down and thrown into the facility’s main court.
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is home to one of the largest radio telescopes in the world, which acts as a giant ear for the universe. Lying in the middle of a forest, the telescope listens to radio signals from other galaxies and has contributed to numerous breakthroughs in astronomy.
In addition to tracking asteroids that could endanger the planet, the telescope played a major role in the “SETI” program – the search for an intelligent life. It was mainly used by astronomer Carl Sagan to send an interstellar message.
Earlier this week, the facility was forced to close after a cable that stood on a metal platform above the telescope shot a 100-foot hole in its giant reflector dish.
“The cable doesn’t really break in the sense of a cable kind of snap, but it just slips out of the socket, which is what you’re used to, an even more bizarre condition,” Arecibo Observatory director Francisco Cordova told CBS News’ Jeff Glor .
Technicians working around the clock to get the telescope back online say they are still making assessments to find out what just happened, preserve the ‘structure of capabilities’ of the machine and ensure that it does so in the future. could not lead to more problems.
“So at this point, we are not, you know, we do not really have a bigger timeline of when that will happen,” Cordova said.
The telescope, a pivotal part of the ongoing search for other life-sustaining planets, has survived terrestrial dangers such as hurricanes, tropical storms and earthquakes. Now the scientific community hopes it can recover from the mysterious damage.
“We will find a way to fix this particular problem and move forward,” Cordova said. “We’ve overcome a lot in our 50-year history, from the Hurricane Maria to very recent earthquake eruptions so far. That we’re a pretty lush clump below and we’ll figure out a way to keep going forward, exciting do science for the world. “
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