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Génesis Ferrer had dreamed of working at the Arecibo Observatory since she first met some of its astrophysicists during a high school trip to Puerto Rico.
After hearing them use terms like ‘outreach’ and ‘show,’ Ferrer, 21, said she ‘just fell in love with the very idea of being able to figure things out so far’. Like many scientists in the United States, Ferrer can trace his interest in astrophysics, biophysics and space back to this school trip.
The fourth-year physics student at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, had recently been awarded a scholarship from the Puerto Rico NASA Space Consortium to study red dwarf star emissions using the radio telescope giant in Arecibo. Due to coronavirus restrictions, Ferrer has remotely accessed the data she needs from the Arecibo Observatory, hoping she would soon be able to complete her investigation where it all started.
Those hopes faded Tuesday morning when the Arecibo observatory collapsed. The telescope’s 900-ton receiving platform and Gregorian Dome – a structure as tall as a four-story building that houses secondary reflectors – fell on the northern part of the vast reflector dish from over 400 feet lower after the main cables supporting the structures. broke overnight.
“I was very sad, very disappointed,” Ferrer told NBC News. “I worked so hard to finally be accepted to work at the Arecibo Observatory. And now that I’ve been accepted, I can’t work on it. I felt very sad, not only individually, but also saw it as a very sad thing for Puerto Rico and science in Puerto Rico. “
The Arecibo Observatory was the largest radio telescope in the world and a point of pride for Puerto Ricans, whether they were scientists or not. About 90,000 islanders and tourists visited the observatory each year, a boon for the region.
In its nearly 57 years of operation, the observatory built with US Department of Defense money has been at the forefront of space research – and is a crucial training ground for space science students.
In August, the observatory began to crumble after an auxiliary cable broke, causing damage to the telescope’s antenna and to the receiver platform that hung above it, according to the National Science Foundation of United States, the federal agency that owns the observatory. In an attempt to prevent “an uncontrolled collapse” in order to “safely preserve other parts of the observatory that could be damaged or destroyed,” the agency said it had started its decommissioning plan of the telescope in mid-November.
“The NSF was taking a long time to do this because it has a series of protocols to follow,” said Abel Méndez, director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo campus, and astrobiologist. planetary. “We thought they had a contingency plan that could speed things up.”
But the cables failed before the agency was able to preserve the telescope.
Dreams of doing science in Puerto Rico “faded”
Arianna Colón, a third-year physics student at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus, said she was particularly interested in pursuing a career in astroparticle physics or astrophysics after watching “The Theory of Everything “and learned about Stephen Hawking.
“If my options were limited when we had the Arecibo Observatory, now that it has all but disappeared, my chances of being able to stay in Puerto Rico have faded,” Colón told NBC News. “My dream was to stay here and give back to my island.”
Colón had just started working with Méndez on an investigation into Comet Borisov when the observatory cables first broke in August. She started by analyzing some of the data the telescope had already captured, but eventually Colón would learn to use it herself and capture more data for future investigations. But that never happened.
“I was so close and it all fell apart,” she said.
Kevin Ortiz, 22, a fourth-year physics student at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, has been conducting astronomical surveys at the observatory for almost three years.
“It’s a tragedy because we see our dreams fade away,” said Ortiz, who was also working on a new investigation alongside Méndez. “I was completely in shock – the Arecibo Observatory is an engineering marvel that was designed to last much longer.
“Incalculable” educational impact, calls for reconstruction
For many in Puerto Rico, the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory was a grim metaphor that reflected the reality of an island in crisis for over a decade. Puerto Ricans struggled with the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, as well as Hurricane Maria – the deadliest natural disaster in the United States in 100 years that resulted in the deaths of at least 2,975 people in 2017. More recently, the island faced a series of strong earthquakes that brought down hundreds of structures before the coronavirus pandemic hit the island. Islanders barely remember a time when their lives were not marked by hardship.
In this context, the Arecibo Observatory represented a “gateway of opportunity” for its students, Méndez said.
“Right now Kevin is applying to graduate schools and by being able to say ‘I did a scientific publication at Arecibo Observatory’ he will automatically stand out because few undergraduates have the experience of working with world class instruments, ”Méndez said of Ortiz. But Ferrer and Colón, his two other students, “and so many others will not have this opportunity” anytime soon.
After the National Science Foundation announced its intention to decommission the observatory, more than 140 students and science professionals came together to launch the Save the Arecibo Observatory movement on social media.
Puerto Ricans in STEM – a coalition of Puerto Ricans from the island and mainland working in science, technology, engineering and math – had joined the movement and helped collect over 65,000 fewer signatures two weeks for a petition asking the White House to save the observatory after raising awareness #SaveTheAO, #WhatAreciboMeansToMe and now #RebuildAreciboObservatory hashtags, said executive director Ramón Misla.
Now the groups are refocus their efforts on getting help from the US Congress to rebuild the telescope.
“The telescope has collapsed but the survey facilities and the visitor center are still there. With the proper funding, we have a viable path to reconstruction,” Ortiz said. “The educational impact of the observatory is incalculable, at all levels, from professionals and students to high schools and elementary schools who visit our center.
Wilbert Ruperto, who helped start the Save the Arecibo Observatory movement, said Wednesday that “a new petition which calls for reconstruction is being discussed by members of the scientific community. It will probably be released today or tomorrow. “
“We have shown that we have the ability to unite,” said Misla. “I believe that the scientific community and the STEM community in general, as we come together, are going to make a difference.”
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