Arecibo Observatory Telescope Collapses, Ending An Era Of World-Class Research

[Beast]

Video: Arecibo Observatory Telescope Collapses, Ending Era Of World-Class Research

Astronomers compare losing the observatory in Puerto Rico to losing a big brother. It was once the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.

www.npr.org

December 1, 20205:18 PM ET
BILL CHAPPELL
Twitter

The Arecibo Observatory's mammoth telescope collapsed overnight. It's seen here in November, after a cable damaged its dish.
University of Central Florida
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has collapsed, after weeks of concern from scientists over the fate of what was once the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. Arecibo's 900-ton equipment platform, suspended 500 feet above the dish, fell overnight after the last of its healthy support cables failed to keep it in place.
No injuries were reported, according to the National Science Foundation, which oversees the renowned research facility.
"NSF is saddened by this development," the agency said. "As we move forward, we will be looking for ways to assist the scientific community and maintain our strong relationship with the people of Puerto Rico."
The Arecibo Observatory had been slated last month to be withdrawn from service, with the NSF citing the risk of an "uncontrolled collapse" because of failures in the cables that suspended the platform and its huge Gregorian dome above the 1,000-foot-wide reflector dish.

The Arecibo Observatory collapsed when its 900-ton receiver platform fell hundreds of feet, smashing through the radio dish below.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
The telescope's trademark dish, nestled amid thick tropical forest, was left with a huge gash in August after a cable fell and slashed through its panels. After a main cable snapped in early November, officials said they saw no way to safely preserve the unstable structure.
Article continues after sponsor message


Instead, they were hoping to keep the visitors center and other buildings operational. But they also noted it would take weeks to work out the technical details of a plan.
Ángel Vázquez, the observatory's director of telescope operations, says he was in the control room area when equipment began to plummet to the ground. In an interview that was posted to Twitter by scientist Wilbert Andrés Ruperto, Vázquez says he and other staff members had been in the process of removing valuable equipment when they heard a loud bang outside.

"When we looked outside the control room, we started to see the eventual downfall of the observatory," Vázquez said. He added that strands of the remaining three cables had been unraveling in recent days, increasing the strain. And because two of the support towers maintained tension as the collapse occurred, some of the falling equipment was yanked across the side of the dish rather than falling straight down through its focal point.
"This whole process took 30 seconds," Vázquez said, "and an unfortunate icon in radio astronomy was done."
Vázquez said he has worked at the facility for 43 years, starting soon after college.

The massive reflector dish is made up of perforated aluminum panels, leaving an expanse of greenery underneath. But many of those panels have now fallen to the earth.
A record of discovery
In Arecibo's nearly 60 years of operation, the observatory's powerful capabilities made it a popular choice for researchers chasing breakthroughs in radio astronomy and atmospheric science. It was used for projects from sniffing out gravitational waves in space to tracking down potentially habitable planets far from Earth.
Arecibo's legacy includes the detection of the first binary pulsar in 1974 — a discovery that bolstered a key idea in Einstein's general theory of relativity and that earned two physicists the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics.
The observatory has been an inspiration to many. For its neighbors in Puerto Rico and for people worldwide, it has been a literal link between the terrestrial and the extraterrestrial. And in movies and art, it has been depicted as both Earth's doorbell and its peephole into outer space.
Pierce Brosnan clambered around its ladders in the James Bond film GoldenEye. Jodie Foster marveled at its otherworldly promise in Contact. And in 1974, it was used to beam a "Hello" message into space.

SCIENCE
World-Renowned Arecibo Radio Telescope Set To Be Dismantled
Researchers have been mourning the telescope's loss since the NSF announced its looming demise last month. Astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute compared it to learning your high school has burned down or to losing a big brother. Doing research at the facility was like going to a wonderful summer camp, he wrote in a recent farewell message to Arecibo.
"While life will continue, something powerful and profoundly wonderful is gone," Shostak said.
Here's how planetary scientist Ed Rivera-Valentin described one aspect of Arecibo's importance earlier this year, on NPR's Short Wave podcast:

"One of the really neat things about the Arecibo Observatory is that it's a very versatile scientific instrument. Most telescopes, most radio telescopes, don't have the ability to send out light. They only capture light. At the observatory, we can send and capture light. When an asteroid's coming by, we are pretty much a flashlight that we turn on. We send radar out to it, and that radar comes back. ... We can tell you how far these objects are down to a few meters.
"And we care about where these asteroids are going to be because what if, one day, this thing comes around and gets too close to Earth? But if we can let people know this is going to happen next year, we can actually prepare for it. Like, the dinosaurs — they didn't have a space program, so they didn't get to prepare for anything."

The idea for the observatory was conceived in the late 1950s by Cornell University professor William E. Gordon, who was looking to build a huge tool to explore the Earth's atmosphere and the composition of nearby planets and moons.
The site in Puerto Rico was chosen "to take advantage of the vicinity to the equator and of the topography of the terrain, which provided a nearly spherical valley and minimized excavation," according to a lecture by longtime Cornell astronomy professor Martha Haynes.
The telescope underwent major upgrades in the 1970s and 1990s, allowing researchers to expand its role. Built with federal funds, Arecibo was managed for decades by Cornell before the University of Central Florida took up that role.
Arecibo and Puerto Rico have withstood natural calamities in recent years, including Hurricane Maria in 2017 and a series of earthquakes this year.

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Its not end of world class research but end of western scientific domination. China FAST 500m telescope will leave this dinosaur in dust.

 

[onebyone]

Video: Arecibo Observatory Telescope Collapses, Ending Era Of World-Class Research

Astronomers compare losing the observatory in Puerto Rico to losing a big brother. It was once the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.

www.npr.org

December 1, 20205:18 PM ET
BILL CHAPPELL
Twitter

The Arecibo Observatory's mammoth telescope collapsed overnight. It's seen here in November, after a cable damaged its dish.
University of Central Florida
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has collapsed, after weeks of concern from scientists over the fate of what was once the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. Arecibo's 900-ton equipment platform, suspended 500 feet above the dish, fell overnight after the last of its healthy support cables failed to keep it in place.
No injuries were reported, according to the National Science Foundation, which oversees the renowned research facility.
"NSF is saddened by this development," the agency said. "As we move forward, we will be looking for ways to assist the scientific community and maintain our strong relationship with the people of Puerto Rico."
The Arecibo Observatory had been slated last month to be withdrawn from service, with the NSF citing the risk of an "uncontrolled collapse" because of failures in the cables that suspended the platform and its huge Gregorian dome above the 1,000-foot-wide reflector dish.

The Arecibo Observatory collapsed when its 900-ton receiver platform fell hundreds of feet, smashing through the radio dish below.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
The telescope's trademark dish, nestled amid thick tropical forest, was left with a huge gash in August after a cable fell and slashed through its panels. After a main cable snapped in early November, officials said they saw no way to safely preserve the unstable structure.
Article continues after sponsor message


Instead, they were hoping to keep the visitors center and other buildings operational. But they also noted it would take weeks to work out the technical details of a plan.
Ángel Vázquez, the observatory's director of telescope operations, says he was in the control room area when equipment began to plummet to the ground. In an interview that was posted to Twitter by scientist Wilbert Andrés Ruperto, Vázquez says he and other staff members had been in the process of removing valuable equipment when they heard a loud bang outside.

"When we looked outside the control room, we started to see the eventual downfall of the observatory," Vázquez said. He added that strands of the remaining three cables had been unraveling in recent days, increasing the strain. And because two of the support towers maintained tension as the collapse occurred, some of the falling equipment was yanked across the side of the dish rather than falling straight down through its focal point.
"This whole process took 30 seconds," Vázquez said, "and an unfortunate icon in radio astronomy was done."
Vázquez said he has worked at the facility for 43 years, starting soon after college.

The massive reflector dish is made up of perforated aluminum panels, leaving an expanse of greenery underneath. But many of those panels have now fallen to the earth.
A record of discovery
In Arecibo's nearly 60 years of operation, the observatory's powerful capabilities made it a popular choice for researchers chasing breakthroughs in radio astronomy and atmospheric science. It was used for projects from sniffing out gravitational waves in space to tracking down potentially habitable planets far from Earth.
Arecibo's legacy includes the detection of the first binary pulsar in 1974 — a discovery that bolstered a key idea in Einstein's general theory of relativity and that earned two physicists the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics.
The observatory has been an inspiration to many. For its neighbors in Puerto Rico and for people worldwide, it has been a literal link between the terrestrial and the extraterrestrial. And in movies and art, it has been depicted as both Earth's doorbell and its peephole into outer space.
Pierce Brosnan clambered around its ladders in the James Bond film GoldenEye. Jodie Foster marveled at its otherworldly promise in Contact. And in 1974, it was used to beam a "Hello" message into space.

SCIENCE
World-Renowned Arecibo Radio Telescope Set To Be Dismantled
Researchers have been mourning the telescope's loss since the NSF announced its looming demise last month. Astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute compared it to learning your high school has burned down or to losing a big brother. Doing research at the facility was like going to a wonderful summer camp, he wrote in a recent farewell message to Arecibo.
"While life will continue, something powerful and profoundly wonderful is gone," Shostak said.
Here's how planetary scientist Ed Rivera-Valentin described one aspect of Arecibo's importance earlier this year, on NPR's Short Wave podcast:

The idea for the observatory was conceived in the late 1950s by Cornell University professor William E. Gordon, who was looking to build a huge tool to explore the Earth's atmosphere and the composition of nearby planets and moons.
The site in Puerto Rico was chosen "to take advantage of the vicinity to the equator and of the topography of the terrain, which provided a nearly spherical valley and minimized excavation," according to a lecture by longtime Cornell astronomy professor Martha Haynes.
The telescope underwent major upgrades in the 1970s and 1990s, allowing researchers to expand its role. Built with federal funds, Arecibo was managed for decades by Cornell before the University of Central Florida took up that role.
Arecibo and Puerto Rico have withstood natural calamities in recent years, including Hurricane Maria in 2017 and a series of earthquakes this year.

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=======================================================================================================


Its not end of world class research but end of western scientific domination. China FAST 500m telescope will leave this dinosaur in dust.

Good New

 

[That Guy]

Video: Arecibo Observatory Telescope Collapses, Ending Era Of World-Class Research

Astronomers compare losing the observatory in Puerto Rico to losing a big brother. It was once the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.

www.npr.org

December 1, 20205:18 PM ET
BILL CHAPPELL
Twitter

The Arecibo Observatory's mammoth telescope collapsed overnight. It's seen here in November, after a cable damaged its dish.
University of Central Florida
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has collapsed, after weeks of concern from scientists over the fate of what was once the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. Arecibo's 900-ton equipment platform, suspended 500 feet above the dish, fell overnight after the last of its healthy support cables failed to keep it in place.
No injuries were reported, according to the National Science Foundation, which oversees the renowned research facility.
"NSF is saddened by this development," the agency said. "As we move forward, we will be looking for ways to assist the scientific community and maintain our strong relationship with the people of Puerto Rico."
The Arecibo Observatory had been slated last month to be withdrawn from service, with the NSF citing the risk of an "uncontrolled collapse" because of failures in the cables that suspended the platform and its huge Gregorian dome above the 1,000-foot-wide reflector dish.

The Arecibo Observatory collapsed when its 900-ton receiver platform fell hundreds of feet, smashing through the radio dish below.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
The telescope's trademark dish, nestled amid thick tropical forest, was left with a huge gash in August after a cable fell and slashed through its panels. After a main cable snapped in early November, officials said they saw no way to safely preserve the unstable structure.
Article continues after sponsor message


Instead, they were hoping to keep the visitors center and other buildings operational. But they also noted it would take weeks to work out the technical details of a plan.
Ángel Vázquez, the observatory's director of telescope operations, says he was in the control room area when equipment began to plummet to the ground. In an interview that was posted to Twitter by scientist Wilbert Andrés Ruperto, Vázquez says he and other staff members had been in the process of removing valuable equipment when they heard a loud bang outside.

"When we looked outside the control room, we started to see the eventual downfall of the observatory," Vázquez said. He added that strands of the remaining three cables had been unraveling in recent days, increasing the strain. And because two of the support towers maintained tension as the collapse occurred, some of the falling equipment was yanked across the side of the dish rather than falling straight down through its focal point.
"This whole process took 30 seconds," Vázquez said, "and an unfortunate icon in radio astronomy was done."
Vázquez said he has worked at the facility for 43 years, starting soon after college.

The massive reflector dish is made up of perforated aluminum panels, leaving an expanse of greenery underneath. But many of those panels have now fallen to the earth.
A record of discovery
In Arecibo's nearly 60 years of operation, the observatory's powerful capabilities made it a popular choice for researchers chasing breakthroughs in radio astronomy and atmospheric science. It was used for projects from sniffing out gravitational waves in space to tracking down potentially habitable planets far from Earth.
Arecibo's legacy includes the detection of the first binary pulsar in 1974 — a discovery that bolstered a key idea in Einstein's general theory of relativity and that earned two physicists the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics.
The observatory has been an inspiration to many. For its neighbors in Puerto Rico and for people worldwide, it has been a literal link between the terrestrial and the extraterrestrial. And in movies and art, it has been depicted as both Earth's doorbell and its peephole into outer space.
Pierce Brosnan clambered around its ladders in the James Bond film GoldenEye. Jodie Foster marveled at its otherworldly promise in Contact. And in 1974, it was used to beam a "Hello" message into space.

SCIENCE
World-Renowned Arecibo Radio Telescope Set To Be Dismantled
Researchers have been mourning the telescope's loss since the NSF announced its looming demise last month. Astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute compared it to learning your high school has burned down or to losing a big brother. Doing research at the facility was like going to a wonderful summer camp, he wrote in a recent farewell message to Arecibo.
"While life will continue, something powerful and profoundly wonderful is gone," Shostak said.
Here's how planetary scientist Ed Rivera-Valentin described one aspect of Arecibo's importance earlier this year, on NPR's Short Wave podcast:

The idea for the observatory was conceived in the late 1950s by Cornell University professor William E. Gordon, who was looking to build a huge tool to explore the Earth's atmosphere and the composition of nearby planets and moons.
The site in Puerto Rico was chosen "to take advantage of the vicinity to the equator and of the topography of the terrain, which provided a nearly spherical valley and minimized excavation," according to a lecture by longtime Cornell astronomy professor Martha Haynes.
The telescope underwent major upgrades in the 1970s and 1990s, allowing researchers to expand its role. Built with federal funds, Arecibo was managed for decades by Cornell before the University of Central Florida took up that role.
Arecibo and Puerto Rico have withstood natural calamities in recent years, including Hurricane Maria in 2017 and a series of earthquakes this year.

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=======================================================================================================


Its not end of world class research but end of western scientific domination. China FAST 500m telescope will leave this dinosaur in dust.

Why are you happy?

This isn't gonna end western scientific research, just slow it down. This also won't suddenly make China pull ahead.

The truth is that the research that this produced was publicly available, and the world benefited from it, including China. The reasons why it was publicly available is because it doesn't benefit anyone to keep in confidential.

It's the exact same reason why china doesn't hide its scientific research into astronomy.

You cheering for this makes no sense, unless you know nothing, and are only looking at it from an ignorant point of view.

By the way, the only reason why the west had dominated the field was because it was the only one that invested heavily into the study of space, and space exploration.

Other nations are welcome to do so as well, no one is stopping them.

 

[shi12jun]

Turned into a pile of garbage shit

 

[Beast]

Why are you happy?

This isn't gonna end western scientific research, just slow it down. This also won't suddenly make China pull ahead.

The truth is that the research that this produced was publicly available, and the world benefited from it, including China. The reasons why it was publicly available is because it doesn't benefit anyone to keep in confidential.

It's the exact same reason why china doesn't hide its scientific research into astronomy.

You cheering for this makes no sense, unless you know nothing, and are only looking at it from an ignorant point of view.

By the way, the only reason why the west had dominated the field was because it was the only one that invested heavily into the study of space, and space exploration.

Other nations are welcome to do so as well, no one is stopping them.

I am happy becos sourgraped american claim China FAST 500m is not able to perform as good as this pile of trash. They think they owned the world and only they are entitled to gain knowledge and advance... FAST is a more modern telescope build by Chinese and capable of performing even deeper space observation. Of cos the american will feel salty when they do not owned it and need to smear others as incapable.

Legendary Arecibo telescope will close forever — scientists are reeling

New satellite image reveals the damage that shut down the facility, ending an era in astronomical observation.

www.nature.com

"The science that has ground to a halt includes Arecibo’s world-leading asteroid studies. The telescope pinged radio waves at near-Earth asteroids to reveal the shape and spin of these threatening space rocks. Not having it “will be a big loss”, says Alan Harris, an asteroid scientist in La Canada, California. (China’s 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), which opened in 2016, does not currently have the ability to do such radar studies.) "

 

[That Guy]

I am happy becos sourgraped american claim China FAST 500m is not able to perform as good as this pile of trash. They think they owned the world and only they are entitled to gain knowledge and advance... FAST is a more modern telescope build by Chinese and capable of performing even deeper space observation. Of cos the american will feel salty when they do not owned it and need to smear others as incapable.

Legendary Arecibo telescope will close forever — scientists are reeling

New satellite image reveals the damage that shut down the facility, ending an era in astronomical observation.

www.nature.com

"The science that has ground to a halt includes Arecibo’s world-leading asteroid studies. The telescope pinged radio waves at near-Earth asteroids to reveal the shape and spin of these threatening space rocks. Not having it “will be a big loss”, says Alan Harris, an asteroid scientist in La Canada, California. (China’s 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), which opened in 2016, does not currently have the ability to do such radar studies.) "

Your comment just shows how childish you are. You're acting petty, nothing more.

If you think this is a good thing, then you need to grow up.

It doesn't matter what one side says or the other, the only thing in this case that matters are the results.

 

[Beast]

Your comment just shows how childish you are. You're acting petty, nothing more.

If you think this is a good thing, then you need to grow up.

It doesn't matter what one side says or the other, the only thing in this case that matters are the results.

Who is the childish one? The american scientist who don't act rational and give salty comment?

I am right to say the research of deep space didn't end as there are FAST 500m deep telescope in China which continue the research for whole world. Not only that, it's capabilities exceed the american trash and will reap more reward for mankind. If the american scientist keep his mouth shut. Such gloat for them will not happen.

I know u have a soft spot for white man.

 

[dbc]

Who is the childish one? The american scientist who don't act rational and give salty comment?

I am right to say the research of deep space didn't end as there are FAST 500m deep telescope in China which continue the research for whole world. Not only that, it's capabilities exceed the american trash and will reap more reward for mankind. If the american scientist keep his mouth shut. Such gloat for them will not happen.

I know u have a soft spot for white man.

Alan Harris isn't American. He said China's FAST radio telescope isn't currently able to do radar studies that was done at Arecibo.
Is this why you are appear to be hyperventilating?

Relax delicate flower, FAST is a passive receiver by design, unlike Arecibo which was built with a transmitter and receiver and so it is able to undertake RADAR studies.
May be China will add that capability in the future - who knows. It has nothing to do with technical capability but more to do with Chinese priorities.


By the way, Russian RATAN-600 built in 1974, with a diameter of 576m is the largest radio telescope in the world.
So whitey still ahead ..LAMAO!

 

[Beast]

Alan Harris isn't American. He said China's FAST radio telescope isn't currently able to do radar studies that was done at Arecibo.
Is this why you are appear to be hyperventilating?

Relax delicate flower, FAST is a passive receiver by design, unlike Arecibo which was built with a transmitter and receiver and so it is able to undertake RADAR studies.
May be China will add that capability in the future - who knows. It has nothing to do with technical capability but more to do with Chinese priorities.


By the way, Russian RATAN-600 built in 1974, with a diameter of 576m is the largest radio telescope in the world.
So whitey still ahead ..LAMAO!

Lol.. you shall bother to do some research before spew nonsense. A world class deep space telescope isn't about just size only. The Russian one is just a flat dish and is projecting power is miserable even compare to arecibo.

 

[dbc]

Lol.. you shall bother to do some research before spew nonsense. A world class deep space telescope isn't about just size only. The Russian one is just a flat dish and is projecting power is miserable even compare to arecibo.

Well you were obsessing over size, now that yours isn't the biggest you've shifted the goal post ...so typical
Also did you know that NASA, JPL and CALTECH worked with the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the FAST design.
As a matter of fact FAST is modelled on Arecibo. LAMAO! You must be so salty right now...

Science | AAAS

www.sciencemag.org

 

[Globenim]

lol American fanboys fuming and projecting hard now that they cant swoon over alleged superiority of a razed down rustbucked of an U.S. controlled telescope after the facade literally cracked and crumbled

 

[That Guy]

Who is the childish one? The american scientist who don't act rational and give salty comment?

I am right to say the research of deep space didn't end as there are FAST 500m deep telescope in China which continue the research for whole world. Not only that, it's capabilities exceed the american trash and will reap more reward for mankind. If the american scientist keep his mouth shut. Such gloat for them will not happen.

I know u have a soft spot for white man.

If you think I have a soft spot for white people, you clearly don't know me well enough, despite how much we've engaged on this forum.

I have been talking about white supremacy on this forum for a long time, and was promptly ignored by, Pakistanis, Indians, and Chinese members alike. The fact that I'm now seeing those same Chinese and Pakistani members now talk about it, because its convenient to push their agenda, its vexing.

You literally are not making any real argument to counter my point, and instead engaging in strawman arguments that have nothing to do with anything.

I asked for not too long ago why you always feel the need to do this, and you never replied. Forgive me for not taking anything you say seriously.

 

[Type59]

Build a new one. I be surprised if they dont.