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France Media Agency20 November 2020 12:35:59
The famous Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico will be dismantled after 57 years of service due to broken cables leading to the threat of collapse, the US National Science Foundation announced Thursday.
Two support cables 900-tonne instruments for the telescope above a 1,000-foot (305-meter) diameter radio dish broke on August 10 and November 6.
Engineers fear that other cables may also break at any time, making any repair attempt excessively dangerous.
The telescope is one of the largest in the world and has been an instrument for many astronomical discoveries.
Last week, one of the telescope’s main steel cables that was capable of supporting 544,000 kilograms broke under just 283,000 kilograms. Image credit: Wikipedia
The foundation “prioritizes the safety of workers, Arecibo Observatory staff and visitors, which makes this decision necessary, albeit unfortunate,” said NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan.
“For nearly six decades, the Arecibo Observatory has served as a beacon for revolutionary science and what a partnership with a community can look like.”
Using the hashtag “WhatAreciboMeansToMe”, messages of sadness for the news spread on Twitter by professional and amateur astronomers who for decades have used the telescope for their work of observing the cosmos.
“More than a telescope, Arecibo is why I’m also in astronomy,” local astronomer Kevin Ortiz Ceballos tweeted.
Karen Masters, an astrophysics professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, posted a photo of herself and her little girl near the radio dish in 2008 and said she was “heartbroken and disappointed.”
An action scene from the James Bond movie “GoldenEye” takes place above the telescope, and in the movie “Contact” an astronomer played by Jodie Foster uses the observatory in her search for alien signals.
The engineering firm that examined the structure concluded that the remaining cables were perhaps weaker than expected and recommended controlled demolition, which the foundation accepted.
Also read: Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory is falling apart, leaving astronomers worried about their research
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