Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of astronomy, is lost

Following the snapped cable that damaged the telescope back in August and a second cable snapping a few weeks ago the National Science Foundation have today decided that Arecibo is too damaged to repair and it will be decommissioned.

"Our goal has been to find a way to preserve the telescope without placing anyone's safety at risk," Sean Jones, assistant director for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate at the NSF, said in a news conference today. "However, after receiving and reviewing the engineering assessments, we have found no path forward that would allow us to do so safely. And we know that a delay in decision making leaves the entire facility at risk of an uncontrolled collapse, unnecessarily jeopardizing people and also the additional facilities."
www.livescience.com...

It's a sad way for the old girl to go but for over 50 years Arecibo was our eyes and ears to the Cosmos and even had a staring role in a James Bond movie so all in all not a bad innings.

a reply to: gortex

Also appeared in the X Files movie if I'm not mistaken.

Great history with such an iconic structure

The Arecibo Message

originally posted by: TXRabbit
a reply to: gortex

Also appeared in the X Files movie if I'm not mistaken.

Great history with such an iconic structure

The movie Contact (1997) with Jodie Foster was filmed there, too.

Sad news, indeed.

originally posted by: TXRabbit
a reply to: gortex

Also appeared in the X Files movie if I'm not mistaken.

Great history with such an iconic structure

Arecibo was actually in the second season episode titled "Little Green Men"

en.wikipedia.org...(The_X-Files)

If you have never been there it was quite an amazing location. Driving through the mountains to get there had some really fun, steep roads that you had to navigate. It was also hard to get the scale of it until you are looking out across it.

Looks like a cover story in the light of upcoming disclosure. Poor Seth. How is he going to listen to alien talk shows now?

a reply to: opethPA

Is it open to the public for touring/visiting?
I'd totally go to PR just for that

a reply to: gortex

This is sad news.

Not just for the science, but also from the historical aspect. It was one of the main 'ears' for SETI.

If you ever wanted to go see it, but didn't/can't/ or just never had the time.... Then the vid below is a ticket to Arecibo the hard way ...the easy way for you because you don't have to move

Posted for the shear enjoyment of adventure ... 11 minutes....

a reply to: gortex

A sad day and the end of an Era, We can only hope that some foundation or other realizes the historic importance of the site and takes it over if only as a museum and tourist attraction though of course it's day's as a scientific instrument may now be over.

That said it is probably just to save money as the researchers know that China is building or has already completed an even bigger radio telescope.

Of course then there are Array's, it is possible to tie together multiple radio astronomy's even much smaller ones that are not as powerful on there own and use the combined array to create a huge single facility.

Still it is something that was part of my generations view of the future and now it is like Concord just another hopeful relic from a more optimistic time lost now in the past.

a reply to: gortex

Damn you, 2020!

Even radio telescopes are game.

Really sad day for science

So, no Aliens ?

a reply to: kloejen

I hope JWST will launch on time.

One of the world's largest radio telescopes, used to monitor the stars for more than half a century, has collapsed.

Arecibo falls apart

Cheers

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Thanks for the heads up F2d5thCavv2.

A broken cable was the final straw for the already badly damaged Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The massive structure's 900-ton instrument platform collapsed on Tuesday (Dec. 1) and landed on the 1,000-foot-wide (305 meters) radio dish.

The cable parted at around 8 a.m. local time, Ramon Lugo, director of the Florida Space Institute (FSI) at the University of Central Florida, told Science magazine. The FSI manages the telescope, which is owned by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
www.livescience.com...

Image credit Deborah Martorell.
twitter.com... on%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livescience.com%2Farecibo-telescope-collapses.html

Drone footage has been released of the moment a cable snapped bringing about the collapse of Arecibo .

Footage released by the National Science Foundation shows the moment a huge radio telescope collapsed in Puerto Rico on Tuesday.

I just saw a telescope die.

a reply to: gortex

Its outdated we no longer need those huge telescopes when we can simply hook several together and can be the size of the earth. meaing we can create the equivalent of large domes that are hundreds of miles wide. Easier to build smaller telescopes and connect them not to mention cheaper and more effective.

en.wikipedia.org...

My daughter's grandmother's husband (sounds complicated but not so much because two divorces are involved) worked at Arecibo in the 70s. He hated that Bond movie where the dish got wrecked. He's pretty heartbroken now.

a reply to: dragonridr

meaing we can create the equivalent of large domes that are hundreds of miles wide.

Yes, but Arecibo was not just a radio telescope.

www.naic.edu...

a reply to: Phage

It is possible but not likely that someone may still come in and rescue the site, it will need a complete rebuild though but since the ground work is already there it should not cost anywhere near as much in modern money as it did when it was first built, that and a new facility could be made truly state of the art, perhaps even made of arrays of smaller dishes at the site taking advantage of the same terrain to block terrestrial signal's and pooling thousands of smaller dished that could tilt and move giving it a bit more coverage of the sky and the ability to track targets for a short time as well.

Lets hope some foundation somewhere has the gut's and the will to invest but sadly it is not likely.

It's an absolute waste though that site was chosen for a reason and there are few sites in this world that are as suitable.

Natural terrain providing a natural insulating barrier against earthly radio pollution, make up of the rock's themselves as well and of course all those years of expertise relevant to that particular site down the drain.