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A12 science
Wednesday 2 december 2020

Huge Puerto Rico radio telescope, already damaged, collapses

a planet is potentially hab-
itable. It also served as a
training ground for gradu-
ate students and drew
about 90,000 visitors a year.
“I am one of those students
who visited it when young
and got inspired,” said Abel
Méndez, a physics and as-
trobiology professor at the
University of Puerto Rico at
Arecibo who has used the
telescope for research.
“The world without the ob-
servatory loses, but Puerto
Rico loses even more.”
He last used the telescope
on Aug. 6, just days before
a socket holding the aux-
iliary cable that snapped
failed in what experts be-
lieve could be a manufac-
turing error. The National
Science Foundation, which
owns the observatory that
is managed by the Univer-
sity of Central Florida, said
crews who evaluated the
structure after the first inci-
dent determined that the
remaining cables could
handle the additional
weight.
This satellite image provided by 2020 Maxar Technologies shows the damaged radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in But on Nov. 6, another ca-
Puerto Rico, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2020. ble broke.
Associated Press A spokesman for the obser-
By DÁNICA COTO the world. anything could have been Scientists worldwide had vatory said there would be
Associated Press “It sounded like a rumble. I done to prevent the dam- been petitioning U.S. offi- no immediate comment,
ARECIBO, Puerto Rico (AP) knew exactly what it was,” age that occurred after cials and others to reverse and a spokeswoman for
— A huge, already dam- said Jonathan Friedman, the first cable snapped in the NSF’s decision to close the University of Central
aged radio telescope in who worked for 26 years as August. the observatory. The NSF Florida did not return re-
Puerto Rico that has played a senior research associate “The maintenance was said at the time that it in- quests for comment.
a key role in astronomical at the observatory and still kept up as best as we tended to eventually re- Scientists had used the tele-
discoveries for more than lives near it. “I was scream- could,” he said. “(The Na- open the visitor center and scope to study pulsars to
half a century completely ing. Personally, I was out tional Science Foundation) restore operations at the detect gravitational waves
collapsed on Tuesday. of control.... I don’t have did the best that they could observatory’s remaining as- as well as search for neu-
The telescope’s 900-ton words to express it. It’s a with what they have.” sets, including its two LIDAR tral hydrogen, which can
receiver platform and very deep, terrible feeling.” However, observatory di- facilities used for upper at- reveal how certain cos-
the Gregorian dome — a Friedman ran up a small rector Francisco Córdova, mospheric and ionospheric mic structures are formed.
structure as tall as a four- hill near his home and said that while the NSF de- research, including analyz- About 250 scientists world-
story building that houses confirmed his suspicions: A cided it was too risky to re- ing cloud cover and pre- wide had been using the
secondary reflectors — fell cloud of dust hung in the air pair the damaged cables cipitation data. The LIDAR observatory when it closed
onto the northern portion where the structure once before Tuesday’s collapse, facilities are still operation- in August, including Mén-
of the vast reflector dish stood, demolishing hopes he believes there had been al, along with a 12-meter dez, who was studying stars
more than 400 feet below. held by some scientists that options, such as relieving telescope and a photome- to detect habitable plan-
The U.S. National Science the telescope could some- tension in certain cables or ter used to study photons in ets.
Foundation had earlier how be repaired. using helicopters to help re- the atmosphere, Vázquez “I’m trying to recover,” he
announced that the Are- The collapse at 7:56 a.m. on distribute weight. said. said. “I am still very much
cibo Observatory would be Tuesday wasn’t a surprise Meanwhile, installing a new The telescope was built in affected.”q
closed. An auxiliary cable because many of the wires telescope would cost up the 1960s with money from
snapped in August, caus- in the thick cables hold- to $350 million, money the the Defense Department
ing a 100-foot gash on the ing the structure snapped NSF doesn’t have, Vázquez amid a push to develop an-
1,000-foot-wide (305-me- over the weekend, Ángel said, adding it would have ti-ballistic missile defenses.
ter-wide) dish and dam- Vázquez, the telescope’s to come from U.S. Con- It had endured hurricanes,
aged the receiver platform director of operations, told gress. tropical humidity and a re-
that hung above it. Then a The Associated Press. “It’s a huge loss,” said Car- cent string of earthquakes
main cable broke in early “It was a snowball effect,” men Pantoja, an astrono- in its 57 years of operation.
November. he said. “There was no way mer and professor at the The telescope has been
The collapse stunned many to stop it.... It was too much University of Puerto Rico used to track asteroids on
scientists who had relied on for the old girl to take.” who used the telescope a path to Earth, conduct
what was until recently the He said that it was extreme- for her doctorate. “It was a research that led to a No-
largest radio telescope in ly difficult to say whether chapter of my life.” bel Prize and determine if