Famed Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

[Recursion]

Source: Science

The Arecibo telescope’s long and productive life has come to an end. The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today it will decommission the iconic radio telescope in Puerto Rico following two cable breaks in recent months that have brought the structure to near collapse. The 57-year-old observatory, a survivor of numerous hurricanes and earthquakes, is now in such a fragile state that attempting repairs would put staff and workers in danger. “This decision was not an easy one to make,” Sean Jones, NSF’s assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences, said at a news briefing today. “We understand how much Arecibo means to the research community and to Puerto Rico.”

Ralph Gaume, director of NSF’s astronomy division, said at the briefing the agency wants to preserve other instruments at the site, as well as the visitor and outreach center. But they are under threat if the telescope structure collapses. That would bring the 900-ton instrument platform, suspended 137 meters above the 305-meter-wide dish, crashing down. Flailing cables could damage other buildings on the site, as could the three support towers if they fell, too. “There is a serious risk of an unexpected and uncontrolled collapse,” Gaume said. “A controlled decommissioning gives us the opportunity to preserve valuable assets that the observatory has.”

Over the next few weeks, engineering firms will develop a plan for a controlled dismantling. It may involve releasing the platform from its cables explosively and letting it fall.

The Arecibo telescope has been widely used by astrophysicists as well as atmospheric and planetary scientists since the early 1960s. For many years it was the main instrument involved in listening for messages from extraterrestrial civilizations, and its striking looks won it a supporting role in feature films.

Read more: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/famed-arecibo-telescope-brink-collapse-will-be-dismantled

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So sad to hear this. It was a marvel of engineering.

[MineralMan]

1. One of the man-made wonders of the world, it was.

I remember reading about it as it was being built. It's pretty much outmoded now, and has been converted for use in other ways than it was designed for. I doubt there was any economic justification for repairing or rebuilding it now, though.

Still, it's sad to see it go.

[sakabatou]

2. If the whole site is going to be gone, maybe they can replace the telescope with trees.

[lagomorph777]

3. I hope the Biden administration science team will propose a suitable modern replacement.

China already has a bigger version of Arecibo.

But other schemes may be suitable, such as large arrays of smaller apertures.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. I did 20 years of SETI @ Home with a team, before they finally shut that down

I think last year (although there are many other distributed computer projects going and SETI was using other scopes too).

It's a shame that as it aged, the funding to maintain it was slowly decreasing and then I know Hurricane Maria really did it in.

Always think about this from the movie "Contact" -

And it was featured in other films. It was pretty iconic.

[patphil]

6. They built it once, they could build it again. Assuming there is still a need for it.

Technology has changed a lot over the past 57 years. A wide array of small dishes may be more effective than one large one.
Still, it was a beautiful thing to behold.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Paul Allen has an array in California

I think Chile has a few up in the mountains and China recently constructed a huge one!

[joshcryer]

9. The larger arrays using VLBI are far far superior.

You don't want to build a big dish like that anymore.

[Mr. Evil]

7. For everything there is a first time.

For everything there is also an end.

So sad to see this scientific icon go.