The iconic Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puero Rico, the most powerful in the world, was destroyed Tuesday morning in an uncontrolled collapse.
The 57-year-old facility had hosted Nobel Prize-winning scientists and blockbuster Hollywood movies alike over the years. But the dome containing instruments that weighed over 1 million pounds crashed into the dish below at 6:55 a.m. EST, said Ray Lugo, director of the Florida Space Institute.
One of three skyscraper-tall towers that supported the dome broke about halfway up. The collapse came just two weeks after the National Science Foundation announced it would decommission the facility due to damage incurred by cable breaks in August and early November.
"The tops of the towers sheared off and the azimuth and dome sheared off the platform," said Lugo, who led a coalition managing the facility for the University of Central Florida in Orlando. "No one was injured. [We are] performing our assessment now." ...
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The telescope, one of the largest in the world, had been used by scientists around the globe for decades to study distant planets, find potentially hazardous asteroids and hunt for potential signatures of extraterrestrial life.
ReplyDeleteIt was also featured in two US films, GoldenEye starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond and released in 1995, and Contact, with actors Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey two years later.
The radio telescope’s 900-tonne instrument platform, suspended by cables 137m (450 feet) above a 305-metre-wide (1,000-foot) bowl-shaped reflector dish, fell on Tuesday morning, the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) said
ReplyDeleteThe telescope, one of the largest in the world, had been used by scientists around the globe for decades to study distant planets, find potentially hazardous asteroids and hunt for potential signatures of extraterrestrial life.
ReplyDeleteDesde que la Fundación Nacional para la Ciencia (NSF) de Estados Unidos comunicó su decisión de desmantelar el observatorio astronómico que funciona desde 1963 en Puerto Rico, astrónomos y puertorriqueños en general iniciaron un proceso de duelo que acabó en la noche del 30 de noviembre, cuando su estructura terminó de colapsar.
ReplyDelete"La plataforma del radiotelescopio de 305 metros del Observatorio de Arecibo en Puerto Rico cayó durante la noche de ayer. No se reportaron heridos. La Fundación Nacional para la Ciencia está trabajando con las partes interesadas para evaluar la situación actual", publicó la NSF a través de Twitter luego del incidente.