Arecibo Observatory’s Iconic Telescope Will be Decomissioned Following Cable Failure

The observatory became famous in more than just scientific circles after appearing in such movies like “GoldenEye”, “Contact” and the “X-Files” TV series. Its building was completed in 1963, and for more than 50 years it has been considered the world’s largest single-aperture radio telescope.

The iconic Arecibo radio telescope will be decommissioned, as damage to the facility cannot be stabilised without an unacceptable risk to construction workers and staff, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on its website.

​In August, an auxiliary cable slipped from its socket in one of the towers and left a 100-foot gash in the dish below. While engineers assessed that the structure was stable and engaged in the planning process to restore the telescope to operation, a second cable snapped and was left suspended over the dish.  

The University of Central Florida, which took part in the management of the Arecibo Observatory confirmed that the university had hired two additional outside engineering teams to assess the situation. Thornton Tomasetti’s model suggested there was no course of action that could safely verify the structure’s stability and advised against allowing personnel on the telescope’s platforms or towers.

In 1989, the observatory directly captured the image of a near-Earth asteroid 4769 Castalia, the first asteroid to be modeled by radar imaging.

Sourse: sputniknews.com