Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico collapses after contributing to decades of space research

A giant radio telescope in Puerto Rico collapsed after aiding decades of astronomical discoveries. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) in a tweet confirmed that the platform of the telescope’s 900-ton instrument fell on a reflector approximately 450 feet (137 m) below. News of the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory telescope came weeks after officials announced that the telescope would be dismantled amid safety concerns. This decision was made following the damage his support system had suffered. Read on to find out more about the incident.

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The Arecibo Observatory telescope collapses in Puerto Rico

The Arecibo Observatory telescope was one of the largest in the world. It has also been a key scientific resource for radio astronomers for 57 years. In fact, it was so popular that it was used as a backdrop for a scene from the James Bond film GoldenEye. He has made underhanded appearances in many other Hollywood films. NSF took to its Twitter to report that fortunately there have been no reports of injuries following the collapse.

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What exactly happened to the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory telescope?

On its official website, the NSF said the telescope had collapsed around 07:55 local time (11:55 GMT) on Tuesday 1 December, “causing damage to the dish and surrounding structures.” The Arecibo Observatory consisted of a 1,000 foot wide radio dish with an instrument platform suspended 450 feet above The platform was suspended by cables connected to three towers.

NSF reported that an investigation into the fall of the platform was underway. Initial results indicated that the top sections of all three of the telescope’s support towers were chipped. When the platform of the 900-ton instrument fell, the telescope’s support cables also fell. Further preliminary assessments indicated that the observatory’s learning center suffered significant damage from falling cables. However, the fall of the telescopes was not entirely a surprise as two cables had broken since August. This had damaged the facility and forced officials to close the observatory.

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Why hasn’t the observatory been repaired for so long?

According to a BBC report, a review last month found the telescope was in danger of catastrophic collapse. However, the altitudinal structure could not be repaired without putting construction workers at potentially fatal risk. Jonathan Friedman, who worked as an associate researcher at the Arecibo observatory for 26 years and still lives near it, revealed to the Associated Press news agency that the observatory’s fall sounded like a rumble. He also said it was a very deep and terrible feeling. At present, a video of the Arecibo collapse is not available on the Internet.

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The telescope was built in the early 1960s, with the aim of studying the ionized upper part of the earth’s atmosphere, the ionosphere. But it was soon used as an all-purpose radio observatory. One of the key findings of the Arecibo Observatory was when it provided the first solid evidence of the neutron star. The telescope also helped identify the earliest example of a binary pulsar, which are two magnetized neutron stars that orbit a common center of mass. This earned its discoverers the Nobel Prize in Physics.