The US National Science Foundation announced the closure of one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. The astronomical instrument, located in Arecibo, will be dismantled due to the threat of collapse after significant damage received from a broken cable. This was announced in a press release on Phys.org.
According to the representatives of the foundation, it is dangerous to operate the radio telescope due to the instability of the structure. In August 2020, a burst auxiliary cable punctured a nearly 30-meter hole in the baffle plate and damaged the dome above it. On November 6, one of the main cables supporting the telescope snapped, threatening the entire structure to collapse. Even if the repair crews fix all the breakdowns, the structure will still remain unstable in the long term.
The decision was not easy, the foundation said, but human safety is a priority, and although the original goal was to preserve the telescope, officials have not found a way to do this without endangering the lives of the observatory staff.
The 300-meter radio telescope was built in the 1960s with funding from the Ministry of Defense as part of the development of missile defense systems. Scientists from all over the world have used it for a variety of purposes, including tracking asteroids en route to Earth, studying planets in the solar system, pulsars, and other astrophysical objects. The Arecibo radio telescope was the largest one to use a single aperture until 2016, when China launched the FAST telescope with a 500-meter dish diameter.
