![]() "While I am disappointed by the loss of investigative capabilities, I believe this process is a necessary step to preserve the research community's ability to use Arecibo Observatory's other assets and hopefully ensure that important work can continue at the facility," says Michael Wiltberger, head of NSF's Geospace Section, in a press release. NSF recognizes its importance to Puerto Rico and to Science, so they will try to safeguard it as a research center that can be used again in the future, reports Meghan Bartels for. The whole observatory will not be shut down, though. ![]() The NSF will swiftly begin to decommission the telescope before any more dangers arise or damages take place. "She withstood powerful hurricanes, but age appears to have gotten the upper hand." "It is very sad to witness the passing of this scientific Queen," Jill Tarter, who used to search for aliens at the observatory, writes in an email to the Times. Can Be Found Lingering Over an Afternoon Espresso Science What Makes the Arecibo Telescope. It’s absence is a glaring loss for Puerto Rico. Some of its highlights include: learning that Mercury completes one rotation every 59 days, not 88 days as originally thought becoming a hotspot for research on extraterrestrial life and discovering a pair of pulsars, or super-magnetized rotation stars, orbiting the Earth, reports Dennis Overbye for the New York Times. The Arecibo telescope has not been rebuilt. During its reign, the powerful telescope led to discovery after discovery, challenging what scientists knew about outer space. A controlled breakdown of the telescope allows the NSF to safely lower it, reports Elie Levine for NPR.įor 53 years, Arecibo was the world's largest radio telescope until it was superseded by a 1,600-foot telescope built in China in 2016. More cables could fail at any second, which could destroy the whole dish and jeopardize the safety of people at the observatory. A massive radio telescope in Puerto Rico used by scientists worldwide will close. "A controlled decommissioning gives us the opportunity to preserve valuable assets that the observatory has." In its 57 years of operation, it endured hurricanes, endless humidity and a recent string of strong earthquakes. "There is a serious risk of an unexpected and uncontrolled collapse," Ralph Gaume, the director of NSF’s astronomy division, said in an NSF telephone conference yesterday. For this reason, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced yesterday that plans to decommission the telescope were underway. Given the age of the telescope, it would need more intensive maintenance in the future since the cables were weaker than originally thought. Teams of engineers looked for remedies to help save the telescope, but repairs would be too risky for a construction team to safely undertake, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. Three months later, a main cable connected to that same tower snapped, causing more devastating damage. This August, an auxiliary cable slipped out of its socket, inflicting a 100-foot-long gash in the dish. In 2017, Hurricane Maria battered the already deteriorating telescope. The observatory has three towers equipped with cables that hold up the telescope's enormous, 1,000-foot reflector dish. In fact, the loss of just one more cable on one of the surrounding towers could lead to the uncontrolled collapse of the entire observatory.After 57 years of gazing into the universe and helping astronomers unravel the cosmos' mysteries, the Arecibo Observatory's world-renowned telescope in Puerto Rico will be torn down, reports Alexandra Witze for Nature. “All of the main cables, all of which are decades old and have been through storms, earthquakes, and constant heavy moisture, may no longer be capable of supporting the load that they were designed ,” Ashley Zauderer, the program director for the Arecibo Observatory at NSF, said during the call. Arecibo’s main cables were installed decades ago, while the auxiliary cables were installed in the 1990s. ![]() ![]() Engineers with NSF did a full assessment of the facility after this second cable break and found that the remaining main cables, each weighing about 15,000 pounds, could not be relied upon. The cable, which was attached to the same tower as the auxiliary cable that failed, caused additional damage to the structure and to nearby cables. While engineers worked to get a replacement auxiliary cable, a second main cable snapped on November 6th, also falling onto the dish. ![]()
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