Huge Puerto Rico radio telescope collapses; many mourning
Source: Phys.org
DECEMBER 1, 2020
Huge Puerto Rico radio telescope collapses; many mourning
by Dnica Coto
A huge radio telescope in Puerto Rico that has long played a key role in astronomical discoveries collapsed on Tuesday, officials said.
The Arecibo Observatory had been shuttered since August after an auxiliary cable snapped and caused a 100-foot gash on the reflector dish. Then a main cable broke in early November, leading the National Science Foundation to declare just weeks later that it planned to close the radio telescope because the damage was too great.
Many scientists and Puerto Ricans mourned the news, with some tearing up during interviews.
It is the second largest radio telescope in the world and had been operating for more than half a century.
2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Read more: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-huge-puerto-rico-radio-telescope.html
I checked AP. I can't find it there. I'll put that up when I get it. I can find a lot of articles saying that collapse is immiment.
The demise happened quickly. Officials just put the antenna off-limits a few months ago. There were threads at DU about that.
![](du4img/smicon-reply-new.gif)
Zorro
(15,948 posts)jaxexpat
(7,248 posts)Or their "perfect", over-fertilized, lawns which I hate. Stay away from the garden centers. It's a slippery slope.
Many may have assumed it was only a prop for Goldeneye anyway. Filmed in Pierce Brosnan's back yard.
Response to Zorro (Reply #1)
jaxexpat This message was self-deleted by its author.
Chainfire
(17,757 posts)but we can afford to build walls. What happened at Arecibo is happening to our nation.
AllaN01Bear
(21,069 posts)![](/emoticons/hi.gif)
orangecrush
(20,533 posts)lastlib
(23,816 posts)WHY the fuck can't we support SCIENCE??!? We can spend HUNDREDS of BILLION$$ on ways to kill our fellow human beings, but we can't spend an occasional few hundred million on finding our place in the universe
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The Arecibo Observatory employed hundreds of local workers.
niyad
(116,411 posts)sarge43
(28,975 posts)![](/emoticons/candle.gif)
pm_me_grey_paint
(17 posts)Submariner
(12,555 posts)Almost every weekday school buses filled with kids from all over the island would visit, and get to use the real-time planetarium displays in the adjacent museum building.
Earlier this year SETI@Home discontinued signal analyses, much of the data came from the huge Arecibo dish reflections. Sad ending because the scientific community did not come to the rescue.
Arne
(2,910 posts)It was mesmerizing to think WoW that must be them!
Turns out it was just cosmic noise.
I have to say that Contact is my favorite movie of all time.
PCIntern
(26,002 posts)Im with you.
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)could have gone on a tour to see if (vacation) hadn't l been scared of riding up & down mountains (almost always been that way).
Contact - one of my favorite movies, too.
a la izquierda
(11,828 posts)They were devastated by the closure. I'm sure they're so upset today.
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)IronLionZion
(46,126 posts)They'll cut funding for maintenance on things like this. Consequences be damned.
usaf-vet
(6,514 posts)RIGHT! The failure president. Failure to help PR with repairs after the hurricane certainly attributed to the ultimate collapse. tRump breaks everything he touches.
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)for a nano sec I was confused about which president but then your words, the video I saw on line of his tossing the effing paper towels, the photos of the people, the devastation in San Juan, and then hearing their stories from the cities to way out into the countryside all came rushing back.
I remember asking aquaintences about their families in PR.
Damn that selfish, ignorant, rascist bastard!
Evolve Dammit
(17,508 posts)dalton99a
(82,522 posts)Before:
Now:
BumRushDaShow
(134,463 posts)Link to tweet
TEXT
John Morales
@JohnMoralesNBC6
·
Dec 1, 2020
#BREAKING: The #AreciboObservatory has entirely collapsed!
😥
Here's my article published just before the news broke -- "Lament for Arecibo" -- in @BulletinAtomic
Hurricanes, earthquakes, and now this. A Puerto Rican scientist's lament for the loss of a legend...
The National Science Foundation has announced it will demolish an icon of science, and of Puerto Rico.
thebulletin.org
John Morales
@JohnMoralesNBC6
Via my colleague @DeborahTiempo here is the picture of the remaining support towers at #Arecibo this morning. It shows that the 900-ton suspended platform that held the receivers and transmitters has collapsed. Dust from the incident still floats in the air at the time of the pic
Image
7:51 AM · Dec 1, 2020
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EoJzndPXcAIIyXr.jpg)
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)Though maybe if maintenance had been kept up it might have withstood that.
Damn
BumRushDaShow
(134,463 posts)and it was obliterated (took a 9 months to replace) -
Arecibo is about 40 miles due west from San Juan.
Path of Hurricane Maria (the eye didn't even go over San Juan) -
There was no way, even if it were maintained. It didn't have a chance.
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)a people at this moment in time. I want to know what led to this, what budgets were cut just so some filthy rich a hole cronies could get another undeserved and unnecessary tax cut.
2naSalit
(89,228 posts)![](/emoticons/cry.gif)
colorado_ufo
(5,814 posts)and the hits just keep on coming.
Puerto Rico needs to become a state to get better treatment.
hay rick
(7,915 posts)packman
(16,296 posts)BobTheSubgenius
(11,668 posts)![](/emoticons/bigsmile.gif)
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...maybe the best book ever written on alien contact. It's worth looking up. Jesus--what a lousy thing to happen...
intrepidity
(7,641 posts)No, not aliens, but a silent protest by someone here on earth?
Moostache
(9,985 posts)NASA has no currently viable or operating launch vehicles.
SETI is all but defunct and has no radio telescope to utilize at Arecibo.
FDA/CDC have been co-opted to political propaganda in service to an imbecile.
WHO membership was pulled and the USA dropped out.
Paris Accords were pulled out (though Biden has pledged to reverse these in his first 100 days...)
Science and rational thought are antithetical to "conservative thinking", at least as it has been narrowly redefined since Reagan - a constant dumbing down and least-common-denominator approach ever since the insane idea of "Star Wars Missile Defense" was first brought up back in the waning days of the Cold War. At least there was some strategic value to SDI in that it contributed to the USSR bankrupting itself to compete militarily against a vastly larger economy (something that our current leaders had better start understanding as the Chinese will very soon be in position to do the same to the USA).
A society that embraces basic research as a national emergency is one that can do anything - hell the entire space race and all that came from it was essentially Cold War propaganda in its reasoning, but the ancillary benefits and all the technology that it spawned also led to the current technological boom in no small measure too.
I cried the day that NASA shut down the shuttle not because the shuttle was a great financial boondoggle but because shutting it down without a replacement at the ready signaled an end to America's ambition and commitment to something beyond ourselves and beyond profits or money.
Today those same feelings are renewed.
krispos42
(49,445 posts)![](/emoticons/sad.gif)
paulkienitz
(1,299 posts)Arecibo was not just a telescope, but a radar dish. With radar we could accurately measure the distances to solar system objects, and get substantial information about their surfaces. Without those measurements, we cannot plot asteroidal orbits accurately enough to ascertain when there's a threat of collision.
We need to build a new radar facility. But this time, instead of a single giant dish we can make a hundred normal-sized ones working in tandem.
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)Though for asteroid tracking - the more "eyes" the better, I'd hazard an educated guess!
paulkienitz
(1,299 posts)The next best asteroidal radar has only like one fifteenth of the ability to pick up faint echoes. We either need another great big dish, or an array of dozens of medium sized ones that add up to as big an area. The latter is probably better because it would be able to steer over a wider part of the sky.
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)An array sounds better.
I wonder if with an array site they could even move some of the dishes at the edge of the array to figure out the shape better. 🤔
Love astronomy!
Baclava
(12,047 posts)Get the high ground secured before the Chinese do...hop to it!
SeattleVet
(5,515 posts)Timing of the propagated seismic wave matches the collapse time pretty closely.
Scott Manley has a good video, with some newer photos of the destruction.
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)Ptah
(33,192 posts)Arne
(2,910 posts)Ptah
(33,192 posts)BumRushDaShow
(134,463 posts)![](https://s.abcnews.com/images/General/arecibo-collapse-ht-jt-120120_1606841061736_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg)
I know I ran SETI@Home with a team for 20 years and most of the data came from that radio telescope. It will be sorely missed although it has pretty much been out of service for some time now.
And as another movie nod, it did appear in the movie "Contact" too.
littlemissmartypants
(23,622 posts)This is an enormous loss for the science community. I am heartbroken. We need a replacement for this as soon as possible.
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)littlemissmartypants
(23,622 posts)I visited El Yunque National Forest, too. I only took slides, none of Arecibo, sadly. I haven't looked at them in years. Thanks for asking.
❤ lmsp
electric_blue68
(15,962 posts)I was hoping to get to their botanical garden or something similar, but didn't.
I still had a wonderful time!
Sounds like you had a very good trip, too.
littlemissmartypants
(23,622 posts)pfitz59
(10,639 posts)Flew my plane over Arecibo quite often. Spectacular location.
Yeehah
(4,713 posts)It seems the NSF prefers Chile for radioastronomy.
roamer65
(36,869 posts)The good stuff in the sky is down under.