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The famous telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which was once the star of a James Bond film, collapsed on Tuesday when its 900-ton receiving platform plunged 140 meters onto the radio antenna here below.
Engineers had recently warned of the dilapidated condition of the enormous structure, and the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) only announced last month that it would be dismantled.
Two of the cables that held the platform above the radio antenna – which measures 300 meters in diameter – had broken this year, and the structure finally gave way on Tuesday morning.
The photographs showed clouds of dust rising into the air and the remains of the telescope instruments scattered around the site.
Aerial view of the damage to the Arecibo Observatory on December 1, 2020 (Ricardo Arduengo / AFP)
“We can confirm that the platform has fallen and that we have no injuries,” Rob Margetta, NSF spokesman, told AFP.
The telescope was one of the largest in the world and has been a tool for many astronomical discoveries since the 1960s, in addition to being famous for its dramatic scale and setting.
An action scene from the film Bond Golden eye starring Pierce Brosnan took place above the TV, and in Contact, an astronomer played by Jodie Foster used the observatory in her quest for extraterrestrial signals.
‘Sad day for astronomy’
Abel Mendez, director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, said the platform fell sometime before 8:00 a.m. (12:00 p.m. GMT), describing it as “utter disaster.”
“Many students are trained in astronomy at the observatory, they are inspired like me to make a career in science and astronomy,” he said.
“The loss of the Arecibo telescope is a great loss for the world, but it is more a loss for Puerto Rico. It is an icon for our island.”
Damage to the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory. (UCF)
The telescope operated for 57 years until August, and scientists pressured NSF to reverse its decision to shut down the site.
In August, an auxiliary cable broke after slipping from its socket in one of the towers and leaving a 100-foot gash in the dish below.
Engineers were assessing the damage and how to repair it when a main cable connected to the same tower broke on November 6.
Before Tuesday, a controlled demolition was planned to prevent an unexpected collapse.
Among the successes of the telescope in 1992 was the discovery of the first exoplanet – a planet outside the solar system – and in 1981 it helped produce the first radar maps of the surface of Venus.
The observatory’s website said the telescope was “a world-leading radio astronomy, solar system radar and atmospheric physics facility, bringing highly relevant data to support discovery, innovation and advancement of science “.
“What a sad day for astronomy and planetary science around the world and one of the most iconic telescopes of all time,” tweeted Thomas Zurbuchen, administrator associated with the direction of the scientific mission of NASA.
The site had hoped that the decommissioning plan would preserve other parts of the observatory for future research and training.
“As we move forward, we will look for ways to help the scientific community and maintain our strong relationship with the Puerto Rican people,” NSF said in a tweet.
© Agence France-Presse
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