Puerto Rico –
Arecibo Observatory, telescope giant radio whose function is to seek life alien on other planets or tracking asteroids, damaged and concluded unsaved. So, the US National Science Foundation as one of the managers decided to close it forever.
During its 57 years of operation, the telescope has made a variety of important findings. However, recently, the observatory, located in Puerto Rico, was damaged twice.
Two cables supporting the structure of the building collapsed last Friday. Previously, a similar incident occurred in another part of the observatory in August. Both incidents caused damage to the large reflector dish of the telescope, which is about 20 acres in size.
“We conclude that the latest damage to the 305 meter telescope cannot be repaired without risking the lives and safety of the crew and staff,” said Sean Jones, assistant director of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate at NSF.
In fact, the University of Florida that handled this facility already had a repair solution following the first failure. However, due to damage again, repair telescope much more complicated and very risky.
“NSF has decided to initiate the controlled closure process of this telescope,” he was quoted as saying detikINET from Reuters, Friday (20/11/2020).
The cause of the damage has not been stated and seems mysterious. Likely, the support cable is weaker than previously thought.
One of the major services of the telescope that was built in the 1960s was detecting a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu in 1999. NASA then followed up on it, even recently sending a probe there to sample the asteroid.
Arecibo has played an important role in the hunt for extraterrestrial beings since the 1970s. In 1974, astronomers took advantage telescope This radio is used to transmit binary code to star clusters 25 thousand light years away, hoping their message reaches the aliens.
Watch Video “Researchers of LAPAN Budget Value of IDR 340 Billion for Astronomy Research is Not Excessive“
[Gambas:Video 20detik]
(fyk / fay)
– .
