The National Science Foundation, a US government agency that deals with scientific research, has released a video shot by two drones showing how the major damage to the Arecibo radio telescope occurred, a gigantic antenna 305 meters wide that since the 1960s was used to investigate the Universe and, in particular, try to pick up any alien communications. The large antenna was made up of nearly 40,000 aluminum panels, mounted on a network of steel cables to form a disc. The disc was surmounted, 150 meters high, by a triangular platform suspended by 18 cables anchored to three high concrete towers along the circumference of the antenna. One of these cables had broken in the summer; a second broke on December 1st causing irreparable damage. The radio telescope will be destroyed because repairing it would be too complicated.
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