Puerto Rico will remain without what has been one of its distinctive features for almost six decades, the radio telescope of the Arecibo Observatory, considered one of the main in the world and which will be demolished shortly due to the risk of collapse due to the breaking of several cables. that support it.
The US National Science Foundation (NSF), the body that owns the historic facility, a world reference for astronomy, reported this Thursday (11/19/2020) through a statement that before the impending collapse it was gone. choice.
The 57-year-old Arecibo radio telescope was one of the largest in the world with a single dish, measured 305 meters in length and supported 900 tons of weight, which gives an idea of its size.
After demolishing the radio telescope, an attempt will be made to restore the LIDAR facility, used for geospatial research, a visitor center, educational areas and an outdoor facility on Culebra Island.
NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan explained that the priority in making the decision was safety, which at the time was compromised by the situation the facility was in. An exclusion zone had in fact been established at the Observatory facilities and evacuated personnel.
The origin that finally led to the decision to dismantle the radio telescope is the initial breakdown of a first auxiliary cable on 10 August, which was followed by another on 6 November, which triggered the facts. In addition, this Thursday it was reported that two other cables supporting the radio telescope, which carry the 900-ton load, were damaged and presented problems that would have caused the impending collapse.
Farewell to an icon of science
The statement points out that the dismantling of the 305-meter radio telescope comes after it has served as a world-class resource for research in radio astronomy, planetary, solar and space systems for 57 years.
This science center has a vast research legacy spanning nearly 60 years which includes its contribution to the discovery of a rare pulsar – neutron star – with features that could help understand how the universe is expanding. It has also been instrumental in the search for systems in orbit near Earth that could threaten it and for signs of life on other planets.
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