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After nearly 60 years of service, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is pulling the plug on the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Following a series of equipment failures, NSF Director of Astronomical Sciences Ralph Gaume announced on November 19 that the radio telescope was beyond repair and would be taken out of service. The withdrawal of the 1,000-foot parabola marks the end of an era of radio astronomy that offered a clearer look at the planets in our solar system and the celestial bodies beyond.
On August 10, a steel cable supporting one of Arecibo’s antennas broke and tore a gash about 100 feet in the spherical reflector below. While the NSF planned to replace the cable, another attached to the same support tower broke on November 6, causing even more damage.
At the time, the facility’s principal, Francisco Córdova of the University of Central Florida, said he hoped the structure could be repaired. “It’s not good, but we remain committed to bringing the facility back online,” he said. “It is too important a tool for the advancement of science.” But engineering assessments have revealed that the entire facility could collapse uncontrollably, risking the lives of workers attempting to make repairs.
When it opened, the Arecibo telescope was the world’s largest single-aperture telescope. He retained that title until 2016, when a 1600-foot-wide Chinese telescope surpassed him. Scientists are already worried that the loss of Arecibo will leave them blind to near-Earth objects like passing asteroids.
Researchers using the telescope during its 67-year run made some startling discoveries. In 1964, scientists determined the rotation period of slow-rotating mercury (one rotation in just under 59 days). In 1982, a different team determined that a rapidly spinning pulsar star rotated 642 times per second.
The observatory, built atop a natural chasm with its antennas independently suspended above, has even made its way into pop culture. The dish served as the location for the 1997 film Contact and a X-Files episode. And director Martin Campbell used the observatory for the dramatic final fight sequence of the 1995 James Bond film. Golden eye.
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