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For 57 years the Arecibo Observatory has been a world-class resource for radio astronomy and planetary, solar system and geospatial research. UCF remains committed to the scientific mission in Arecibo and in the local community. Credit: UCF
The National Science Foundation predicts it will be several weeks before the telescope disassembly can begin.
Following a review of engineering assessments, the US National Science Foundation announced it will not begin planning the controlled dismantling of the 1,000-foot-wide telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
The observatory, which UCF manages for NSF under a cooperation agreement, has served for 57 years as a world-class resource for planetary, solar system, and geospatial radio astronomy and research. But a break in the main cable on November 6 put the telescope’s structural integrity into question.
Three engineering companies, which were previously hired to address an auxiliary cable break at the facility in August, evaluated the telescope and submitted their reports to NSF. Record engineer Thornton Tomasetti recommended deactivating the telescope because he found the telescope structure is in danger of catastrophic failure. NSF asked two other groups to review the assessments and they agreed that pursuing reparations poses a risk to human life.
“Our team worked tirelessly with the NSF looking for ways to stabilize the telescope with minimal risk,” says UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright. “While this achievement is not what we were working for, and we are discouraged to see such an important scientific resource deactivated, safety is our top priority. At a time when public interest and scientific curiosity about space and the skies have again intensified, much remains to be understood about the data that has been acquired by Arecibo. Despite this disappointing setback, we remain committed to the scientific mission in Arecibo and in the local community “.
UCF will work with NSF to implement the necessary security plans and permissions to begin the decommissioning process. Construction is not expected to start for several weeks. The goal is to take down the telescope, which includes the platform and the Gregorian dome, and keep as many other parts of the structure intact for future use.
NSF says it intends to restore the LIDAR facility, which is used in geospatial research at Arecibo, as well as the offside Culebra Visitor Center and Research Substation, which analyzes cloud cover and rainfall data.
“NSF prioritizes the safety of workers and staff and visitors to the Arecibo Observatory, 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 partnership with a community can look like. While this is a profound change, we will look for ways to assist the scientific community and maintain that strong relationship with the people of Puerto Rico. “
The beginnings of Arecibo
The Arecibo Observatory was built from 1960 to 1963 and was the brainchild of Cornell University physicist William Edwin Gordon. Cornell University was the first operator of the site. The location was ideal for the telescope and would have led to decades of significant contributions in the fields of atmospheric science, planetary science, radio astronomy, and radar astronomy.
The huge primary disk of AO’s telescope has been a workhorse for science. It was used to discover the first exoplanets and detect organic molecules outside our galaxy. The 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor for their work with Arecibo in monitoring a track pulsar, providing a rigorous test of Einstein’s theory of general relativity and the first proof of the existence of gravitational waves. Arecibo also helps NASA characterize asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth through the agency’s near-Earth object observation program at the Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The facility has even appeared in a James Bond film and The X-Files TV shows.
Considered a cultural treasure in Puerto Rico, the site is visited by thousands of school-age children every year and thousands of other visitors from around the world. The visitor center, built through private donations, also conducts several education awareness programs throughout the year that impact all students. NSF supports a research program for college students there every summer.
UCF became manager of the facility in April 2018 after receiving a five-year grant of $ 20.15 million. This is the third year of the scholarship. Since coming aboard with UCF, the facility has secured new funding to continue NASA’s work and to design and drive new instruments that were to be added to the telescope in the coming years. Other scientists have also secured funding to improve Arecibo, including a 2018 grant awarded to Brigham Young University and Cornell University for $ 5.8 million to design and mount a supersensitive antenna (ALPACA) at the focal point of the telescope’s dish. .
In 2019, UCF expanded its agreement with Microsoft, which resulted in the observatory gaining access to a variety of Azure services – from analytics to artificial intelligence – to develop a new platform that will help facilitate access. and the storage of the 12 petabytes of data the observatory has collected in its 50-year history. Once fully implemented, the new platform should make reliable information on planets, pulsars, asteroids and comets more easily accessible to scientists working at Arecibo and around the world. The works are in progress.
The observatory continued to help scientists with observations that they turned into published articles in journals that expanded our knowledge of space and the position of the Earth in the solar system.
Challenges
The structure has withstood numerous hurricanes and earthquakes. It was damaged during Hurricane Maria in 2017, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency used the observatory’s helicopter landing pad and other facilities as a stopping point for supplies and community help. UCF worked to secure funding to repair and improve the site after the hurricane. Work was underway when the first auxiliary cable broke in August 2020.
The cable slipped from its socket into one of the towers, leaving a 100-foot gash in the plate below. A team of experts was called in to investigate the cause of the break and find a way to make the repairs. UCF partnered with NSF to assess the rupture and come up with a plan. The facility was closed and a monitoring team began monitoring all cables and the platform as part of the facility’s safety and temporary emergency repair plan. Safety was the top priority throughout the evaluation process. Arecibo was waiting for a team of engineers who were supposed to begin temporary emergency repairs related to the August accident when the main cable broke on Friday 6 November.
Unlike the auxiliary cable which failed, this main cable did not slip out of its socket. It broke and fell on the reflector below, causing further damage to the dish and other nearby cables. Both cables were connected to the same support tower. A safety zone was set up around the dish and only the personnel needed to respond to the incident were authorized on site.
The second broken cable was unexpected. Engineering evaluations following the auxiliary cable failure indicated that the facility was stable and the planning process was underway to restore telescope operation. Engineers later found that the 3-inch main cable cracked at about 60 percent of what should have been its minimum breaking strength during a calm period of time, increasing the possibility that other cables were weaker than expected. Subsequent drone inspections of the other cables revealed new wire breaks on some main cables.
All information was shared with NSF, who notified the UCF of its decision on November 18. The next steps are still pending and UCF is committed to working with the Puerto Rican community.
“Critical work remains to be done in the area of atmospheric sciences, planetary sciences, radio astronomy and radar astronomy,” says President Cartwright. “UCF is ready to use its experience with the observatory to join other stakeholders in pursuing the kind of commitment and funding needed to continue and leverage Arecibo’s contributions to science.”
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