![]() First an auxiliary cable snapped and left a hundred foot gash in the telescope, and then in November one of the main cables broke, leading to an inspection of the other main support cables. While Arecibo has previously endured rough treatment at the hands of Hurricane Maria in 2017 and an earthquake in January of 2020, its most significant damages occurredthis past August when the cables holding up the 900-ton instrument array started to fail. Credit: NAIC Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF. The 305 m dish covers an area of roughly twenty acres. Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is one of the largest centers for radio astronomy, planetary radar, and asteroid tracking in the world. ![]() Unfortunately for the astronomical community, Arecibo suffered severe damages this year that led to its eventual collapse. ![]() Built into a natural karst sinkhole on the island of Puerto Rico in 1963, it was in fact the largest single dish telescope in the world until China completed its Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in 2016. This post was written by ScIU guest writer Laura Congreve Hunter, a graduate student in IU’s Astronomy Program.įamous for its appearances in movies and television including GoldenEye (1995), Contact (1997) and an episode of The X-Files (“Little Green Men”), the Arecibo telescope is a massive 305m (1,000 ft) radio telescope.
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