On Monday, August 10, around 2:45 in the morning, one of the thick cables supported by the Arecibo observatory fell on the main dish of the radio telescope. Outcome? A crack of more than 30 meters that has left the observatory inoperative for the moment. One of the main observatories for capturing signals from deep space.
–
–
–
According ha informado UCF Today (Middle of the Central Florida University, which is in charge of directing the observatory), the broken cable is one of the three that hold a metal platform hanging over the main plate. On this platform are sensors, the Gregorian Dome with a multibeam receiver and other instruments to collect and interpret the signals captured by the gigantic main dish. These three cables are really thick to be able to support the platform, consequently also heavy, so if one falls from a considerable height, it is more than expected that it will destroy part of the observatory.
One of the cables that supports this metal platform is the one that has been broken. —
Francisco Cordova, director of the observatory, indicates that now the objective is “to ensure the safety of our personnel, protect the facilities and equipment and restore the facility to carry out full operations as soon as possible.” And is that Arecibo It serves as a research tool for many scientific teams throughout the world, which make use of the radio telescope’s powerful ability to capture signals from extremely far in the universe.
While the damage seems serious, in reality It is not so much because of the damage to the main dish as because of the fact that there is no cable. To point precisely into space at specific points it is necessary to move the suspended platform and for that, the cables (including the one that has been broken) are needed. A photo from another perspective shows how the damage is not so great:
Although the photographer in me prefers the perspective of the photo already making the rounds on Twitter, here’s a far-less-catastrophic-looking telephoto shot, courtesy of Phil Perillat, of the damage sustained by @NAICobservatory due to the cable failure Monday. pic.twitter.com/bClRxkQk8k
— Dr. Joe Swiggum (@swiggumj) August 12, 2020
This damage, although it will temporarily interrupt Arecibo’s activity, is not the first it has suffered. One of the most relevant was the one caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017, from which he has not yet fully recovered and repairs continue.
Five decades of history and discoveries
The Arecibo Observatory, in Puerto Rico, has the second largest radio telescope in the world after the FAST de China. With a diameter of 304.80 meters for its main dish, it has been for decades one of the most spectacular and important for the investigation of the Universe.
—
It was built in 1963 and currently Its main purpose is the SETI project, which seeks extraterrestrial intelligence or advanced technologies outside of Earth.. Among the greatest achievements of Arecibo we find the discovery of the first exoplanet, the first photo of an asteroid, the first binary pulsar, or the exact rotation period of Mercury. But perhaps the most curious of all is the message you sent to a cluster of stars that are 25,000 light years from us. In this message there was extremely basic information about humanity such as the drawing of a human or basic chemistry formulas.
Via | Space
More information | UCF Today
–
