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Following the announcement of the impossibility of repairing the Arecibo radio telescopeGiven the damage in August and November, many had moved to try to change the decision. Now the story is enormously complicated! The central suspended structure of the telescope indeed collapsed about him reflectorunderlying causing incalculable damage.
Aerial photography prior to the collapse, but with August and November damage
The collapse of the Arecibo radio telescope
After the cable damage in August, the situation was already critical. In November a new aggravation of the situation had arisen with a second cable that had definitively compromised the structure. After several analyzes, it was decided to suspend the activities of the Arecibo radio telescope to avoid endangering people’s lives.
Comparison between the radio telescope of today, after the collapse, and yesterday.
The choice had been to dismantle a large part of the structure leaving only a few buildings (such as the visitor center) for future operations. Data from observations that lasted more than 50 years were also kept. It is about 12 petabytes that in any case may be available to the scientific community thanks to an agreement with Microsoft and take advantage of the Azure platform.
Aerial photograph after the collapse of the central section and part of the concrete pillars (source)
At last hours as the structure suspended over the reflector collapsed to the ground destroying and destroying part of the underlying disk (already damaged by previous damage). This has definitely established the word “penalty fee” also about the possibility of a future recovery. Taking into account the previous damages, to which those of these hours are added, it would be a question of carrying out a Radio telescope brand new.
Remember that the Arecibo radio telescope It was one of the most important in the world (single antenna) recently surpassed only by the Chinese FAST. Its usefulness has varied since shipping the Arecibo message in 1974 in the direction of globular cluster M13 to monitor near-Earth objects. But its iconic structure had also stayed in popular culture thanks to The X-Files, 007 movies, and some video games.
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