Stunning video footage was released Thursday by the National Science Foundation capturing the exact moment The Arecibo Observatory’s 900-ton platform has been downgraded In a 1,000-foot wide dish below. A drone was investigating closely the cables that had a platform over the dish when the cable broke on Tuesday.
Video from the giant radio telescope, drone footage and camera footage of the visitor center both show mera showing up at the top of the forest floor in Arecibo, Puerto Rico in Plato Platform Dire. The two large parts of the cement tower that were attached to the cable can also be seen coming down.
The previous two cables were broken, one in August and Another November, Destabilizing the telescope.
The drone was investigating the spot on top of a tower, where the rest had suddenly crashed.
The NSF recently decided to cancel the telescope after another cable broke in November.
“It was a dangerous situation.” John Abruzzo, who is with the NSF-contracted engineering consulting firm Thornton Tomasetti, told reporters Thursday. “Those cables can fail at any time.”
On Tuesday, they did.
The NSF reports that no one was injured in the crash and that the visitor center suffered only minor damage.
The telescope, which has been in operation for nearly 60 years, was set against a dramatic battle scene with Pierce Brosnan in the 1995 James Bond movie GoldenI. They also appeared in the 1997 duo Foster Movie Contact. But the true legacy of Arecibo lies in the many possible scientific discoveries. He discovered the pulsar, expanded our knowledge of Mercury, discovered the exoplanet, and saw a fast radio blow.
