Arecibo Observatory on Possible Brink of Collapse

[Non Sync]

Another thing for 2020-

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has one of its main cables snapped back on 6NOV, putting the entire structure at risk. A secondary cable had slipped out of it socket in August and engineers were preparing to make repairs when the main cable failed. When that cable came undone, it damaged the structure at the focal point and gashed a 100-foot-long hole in the reflector portion of the dish.

The radio telescope, constructed in a valley, has experienced a number of incidents that have caused damage to the structure. A strong earthquake in 2014 damaged parts of the facility and a cable they were planning on replacing later this year.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Crumbing infrastructure - sounds familiar.

 

[Non Sync]

The National Science Foundation has made the decision to decommission the facility. The dish is going to be demolished as it on the verge of collapsing and repair attempts could endanger the lives of the workers. Portions of the site will be kept intact and still used for educational purposes.

The past few years have been pretty brutal, between earthquakes and hurricanes.

 

[BK613]

A sad moment for science. Here's the NSF press release"
https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674

And this is another reason to tell 2020 to fuck off.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

There remain the larger 500m aperture spherical telescope (FAST) in China and the 600m RATAN-600 in Russia. However, most useful radio astronomy research is done using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) nowadays.

 

[publiusr]

Good thing FAST is on line...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Spherical_Telescope

One last thing I'd like to see done. Turn its radar up full blast during an electric storm to see what happens--by remote control (after some explosives are put in place)--and after doing any damaging end-of-life experiments that were deemed too risky.

Let it go out in a bang.

Passing space craft....ow! What a signal!

Too late
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2020/...day-before-it-could-be-dismantled-safely.html

 

[StarCruiser]

Well - if funding could be found - they could always build a new radio telescope at Arecibo. Keep the name and try to keep some of the parts of the old one for historical value and just build a modern system at the same site...

 

[publiusr]

I think it might be better to put one below the Equator, so as to observe the southern skies, with FAST in the north.

The best would be these:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2020_Phase_I_Phase_II/lunar_crater_radio_telescope/

The optical version
https://www.moondaily.com/reports/Idea_Revived_for_Ultimately_Large_Telescope_on_the_Moon_999.html

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Big-ass radio telescopes might have the ability to gather more radio-wavelength photons but they don't have the resolving power offered by VLBI. The really big ones are either not steerable or only marginally orientable by off-axis focussing so their choice of observable targets and observing time is very limited.

 

[Non Sync]

Probably easier and cheaper in the long run to rebuild it at the current location.

 

[Trekker4747]

The is sad to hear, always been fascinated by this site.

 

[Non Sync]

I discovered this view of the dish in Bing Maps:

There's the problem...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Phased array installations such as ASKAP and large-scale VLBI offer more scientific value in my opinion.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

We'll always have GoldenEye.

 

[Non Sync]

And Contact.

 

[P Tom]

Arecibo Observatory was also the setting in The X-Files episode "Little Green Men".

 

[Silvercrest]

Clearly, when Sean Bean fell on it, it suffered more damage than we thought.

 

[publiusr]

I could just see one inside Meteor Crater, Arizona

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Scott Manley explains why the main loss is for radar astronomy rather than radio astronomy.

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Which is all correct but Arecibo could be replaced by building a large phased array on a flat plain - a parabolic reflector and extensive steel cabling are not required.

 

[TrekMD]

This is in my hometown. So sad to see that it will be demolished.