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(Journalist)
– Last week’s news that an iconic radio telescope that has gazed into the cosmos for nearly six decades has been decommissioned and demolished hit the scientific community hard, and now they are fighting to keep the astronomical monument alive. The telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico sustained structural damage after cables ruptured holding a 900-ton equipment platform, cutting a 100-foot gash in the telescope’s giant reflector antenna. (A new high-resolution satellite photo commissioned by Nature from Planet Labs shows the damage from above.) Upon closer inspection, additional problems were discovered and the National Science Foundation decided to shut down the telescope for safety reasons. Now a petition calls on the government to find a way to keep the telescope running, ABC News reports.
“We are calling for urgent action for the Army Corps of Engineers or another agency to assess the structure of the telescope and find a safe way to stabilize it,” read the petition to the White House, which had over 28,000 signatures as of Friday. Space.com notes that if the petition gets 100,000 signatories by December 21, the White House must respond within two months. Jenniffer Gonzalez, Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, is also taking action, sending a letter to Congress last week asking for funds to make repairs. NSF maintains the structure is beyond safe refurbishment. “We understand the risk of going out there and trying to fix it,” Wilbert Ruperto-Hernandez, one of the organizers of the “Save the Arecibo Observatory” campaign, told Space.com. “But not many people think that should be an excuse to just tear it down.” (Read more stories about telescopes.)
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