Before its collapse, astronomers were using the telescope for a number of scientific studies, including radar assessments of near-Earth asteroids, to measure their threat to the planet. Legendary Arecibo telescope will close forever — scientists are reeling. The NSF says it will continue paying staff at the observatory and carry on with science at other, smaller facilities on site that do not involve the metre dish. It is unclear whether the dish will be demolished, rebuilt or left in ruins, as-is.
This would, however, depend on the US Congress allocating money to replace the Arecibo dish. Ralph Gaume, the head of NSF's astronomy division, said at a 3 December press briefing that any replacement would be a multi-year process involving congressional funding and assessment of the scientific community's needs.
Update 03 December : This story was updated to include video footage of the telescope's collapse, taken by an observatory drone. News 09 NOV Research Highlight 05 NOV News 04 NOV News 01 OCT Article 18 AUG Temple University. The cables that broke helped to support a tonne platform of scientific instruments, which hangs above the main telescope dish. The first cable slipped out of its socket and smashed panels at the edge of the dish, but the second broke in half and tore huge gashes in a central portion of the dish.
A second photograph, released this week by observatory officials, also reveals the destruction. These are some of the only public glimpses of the damage so far. A high-resolution satellite image of the Arecibo dish shows gashes in the main dish through which green vegetation below is visible. Credit: Planet Labs, Inc. If any more cables fail — which could happen at any time — the entire platform could crash into the dish below.
Why ultra-powerful radio bursts are the most perplexing mystery in astronomy. So the NSF decided to close the Arecibo dish permanently. The closure comes as a shock to the wider astronomical community. A social-media campaign with the hashtag WhatAreciboMeansToMe sprung up almost immediately, with astronomers, engineers and other scientists — many from Puerto Rico — sharing stories of how the observatory had shaped their careers.
NSF officials insist that the cable failures came as a surprise. After the first, engineering teams spotted a handful of broken wires on the second cable, which was more crucial to holding up the platform, but they did not see it as a major problem because the weight it was carrying was well within its design capacity. The main cable that failed experienced wire breaks shown before its sudden and unexpected collapse. But that main cable, which was installed in the early s, had apparently degraded over time.
Over the years, external review committees have highlighted the ongoing need to maintain the ageing cables. Zauderer said that maintenance in recent years had been completed according to schedule.
Before this year, the last major cable problems at the observatory were in January , when a magnitude The ageing structure has suffered other shocks in recent years, including damage to an antenna and the dish caused by Hurricane Maria in The Category 4 storm killed hundreds of people and caused widespread power outages that lasted for months.
Power to the observatory was restored on Dec. The most significant damage was to the foot 29 meters "line feed" antenna, which was suspended above the radio dish. It broke off during the hurricane and punctured the dish below when it fell.
Arecibo broadcast a pictorial message into space in , aiming for M13 — a globular cluster of stars. It will take some time for the message to get there, as M13 is about 21, light-years away. According to SETI, the broadcast is roughly the same as a trillion-watt omnidirectional broadcast. In simple terms, the broadcast would be visible by just about any receiver in the galaxy that is about the same size as the antenna at Arecibo.
When [the tone] started, much of the audience spontaneously got up and walked out of the tent and gazed up at the telescope," recalled past Arecibo director Harold Craft in a Cornell University press release marking the 25th anniversary. In the decades following, SETI has trumpeted the message as a significant step to helping understand the challenges of communicating with aliens.
Arecibo was frequently used for finding asteroids that swung close to Earth. The observatory focused on those that could pose a danger to the planet , making an effort to accurately measure their sizes and gauge the potential impact they could have.
In , for example, the observatory watched the arrival of asteroid DA14 , which passed within 17, miles 27, kilometers of Earth.
It was a close flyby, but NASA emphasized the asteroid passed by at a safe distance. The group has a habitable planets catalog that tracks the number of alien worlds in other solar systems that could be in the Goldilocks zone, or area that is not too hot or cold for life, of their respective stars.
On Aug. Although at the time scientists were optimistic about potential repairs, on Nov.
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