No one was anticipating November as an engineer on November 6th Arecibo Observatory The weight of their options for dealing with facility damage from cable failures during the summer in Puerto Rico
But as the engineers were about to begin repairing that secondary cable, it slipped Out of his socket in August, They faced a more serious challenge: a The main cables struck unexpectedly, Putting the whole facility at risk.
“We’ve seen some individual wires broken on that particular cable, but we haven’t seen any change for weeks,” Francisco Cordova, the observatory’s director, told Space.com.
Related: Arecibo Observatory: Puerto Rico’s giant radio telescope in the photo
“That particular situation was assessed by the engineering team and decided it wasn’t an issue, because the capacity of that cable was much higher than what it carries, that really shouldn’t be a problem.” “Certainly now with this failure, we understand that capacity just isn’t there and there have been other degradations.”
Situated in a natural basin in the middle of a Puerto Rican forest, the Are Resibo Observatory began scientific work in 1963 and is the second largest radio dish in the world. Scientists have used it to discover the first planets beyond our solar system and to confirm that pulsars are superdance neutron stars. Transmit a message The intelligent alien entered the universe in the hope of reaching life. He’s also the main sender of Earth to identify whether or not a particular asteroid is on its way to hit the planet – and he appeared in less blockbuster movies like James Bond’s “Golden Noy” and “Contact.”
CiRsibo was created by a Cornell University scientist who operated the facility until 2011, with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the main fund for the observer. Faced with increasing budget pressures, the NSFA gradually phased out its funding, first the Universities Space Research Association and then University of Central Florida, Although the NSF still owns the site.
But over the last few years, the observatory has been in trouble. In 2014, a strong earthquake damaged parts of the facility, including a cable that facility operators were hoping to replace later this year. In 2017, Hurricane Maria Hit Puerto Rico but mostly saved Arecibo. Observatory helipads and well water were important resources for those living near the facility. Outside astronomers know that the observatory is still standing.
This year, during January, a Earthquake series, The strongest 6.4 Templar, rocked Puerto Rico and shut down for facility inspection. When the month was over and an earthquake followed, Puerto Ricans celebrated the New Year in the hope that the worst time of the year would be over, said Abel Mendez, a planetary astrologer at the University of Puerto Rico, who asked students to make regular observations at Arecibo. Space.com – Coronavirus epidemic outbreak only in March.
But for the observatory, things just got worse.
The first cable slipped out of its socket at 2:45 a.m. local time. On the way down, he damaged the inspection facilities suspended above the dish, as well as putting a 100-foot-long (30-meter) “gash” into the delicate dish, according to one. Statement from the University of Central FloridaIs, which operates the facility.
At Nov 39, the situation worsened when another cable – this time, one of the primary cables – broke, compromising the structural integrity of the 900-ton (800,000 kg) platform. .Honic devices holding.
“The present is important,” Mendez told Space.com. “I’m completely scared of what’s going on at the observatory now. I’m very worried about it.”
The situation is also difficult to assess, as it is dangerous for the suspended platform and its leaning cables to reach the anchoring towers. “When you have access to towers, when you have access to platforms, there are a million ways that you can remove a failed cable, hoist a new cable, such things,” Cordova said. “When you can’t access the connection points for these cables, it becomes a big challenge.”
On the ground, Cordova said, the damage doesn’t feel as bad as it used to.
“When you look at the platform you don’t see the whole difference – you’ll definitely see a few extra cables that you shouldn’t have, they should be really pointing, and they’re pointing downwards,” Cordova said. “But this is such a huge structure that it gets lost in the background size of the telescope platform.”
This is a matter of loss Dish He said they have gathered during the events. “Certainly the dish is quite damaged,” Cordova said.[but] Whenever you see how big our primary reflector is and you notice what the damage is, it also doesn’t seem like an unwanted thing. “
The observatory has put forward a set of options for stabilizing the situation and is awaiting a decision from the National Science Foundation, which has the facility on how to proceed. “Hopefully in the next few days, we’ll make that decision,” Cordova said.
Meanwhile, scientists affiliated with the Arecibo Observatory are hoping for the best. Researchers are also gathering at regular virtual meetings, described by Mendez as “stress relief” sessions, to talk about the situation and share memories of the facility.
“It’s clearly a very worrying situation,” Don Campbell, who began his career at Arecibo in 1965 and eventually served as director of the observatory in the 1980s, told Space.com. “The first cable failure was certainly surprising and of grave concern … With the second cable failure, things obviously became more serious.”
The danger is that the half-century history of astronomy, meteorological studies, and research is not in jeopardy. Near-Earth asteroids And the discovery of life beyond Earth. Scientists say that, in its case, there is a possibility of losing any unique feature left to work.
“Arecibo still has a lot of binoculars that are at the forefront in many areas and the damage will be huge.” Said Campbell. “I’m crossing all my fingers to figure out how they can stabilize the structure and fix it. I’m still optimistic about something.”
“It’s an uncertain situation,” he added, “and we’ll just kind of wait and see.”
Email Meghan Bartel at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us On Twitter @speed.com and Facebook.
