Giant Radio Telescope In Puerto Rico Suffers Major Damage From Snapped Cable – IOTW Report

Giant Radio Telescope In Puerto Rico Suffers Major Damage From Snapped Cable

Astronomy

The Arecibo Observatory just can’t catch a break.

Early Monday morning, a 3-inch thick cable that supports a platform high above the radio telescope failed, striking and damaging the dome that houses its receiver and tearing a 100-foot (30.5 meter) gash in the observatory’s main dish. No one was injured in the incident, observatory officials say, which occurred at 2:35 A.M. local time while the telescope was tracking, according to a log maintained by Arecibo’s Phil Perillat. More

18 Comments on Giant Radio Telescope In Puerto Rico Suffers Major Damage From Snapped Cable

  1. Was the cable made in America? Where did the steel originate that made the cable? America? China? Puerto Rico?

    Cables that “fail” usually need an underlying reason to fail.

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  2. Failure of a key anchor point in the structure has lead to the collapse of a large radio telescope before. In this example the 300 foot radio astronomy telescope at Green Bank. If I recall correctly it was determined the gusset plate failed because the holes had been punched, not drilled.

    “What caused the (at the time, 1988) world’s largest moving telescope to collapse? Independent investigators discovered that unforeseeable stress factors cracked a steel connector plate that just happened to be a key but hidden member of the support structure of the giant telescope. No one was to blame, and no one was hurt – but one of radio astronomy’s greatest telescopes was gone.”

    https://public.nrao.edu/telescopes/300-foot-telescope/ .

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  3. I always thought it was the height of naivete to send out messages telling aliens where we are & indicating our level of technological sophistication. I’m glad that shit is closed down.

    Survival of the fittest doesn’t mean giving away your location. Thinking any race that gets those messages is benign is suicidal. No telling who’s going to show up.

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  4. A once read a book, “The Sparrow”, about a group of people who live near the Arecibo telescope. One is a technician at the site, another is a Jesuit missionary, etc. Well, the techie tells his friends in confidence that they’ve picked up intelligent signals from Alpha Centauri. The Jesuit tells higher ups in his order about it, and while the UN and governments are dithering about what to do, the Jesuits buy an asteroid from belt miners and outfit it as a spaceship. So, on goes a group of Jesuits to Alpha Centauri! I’ve always liked the idea of sending the leftie Jesuits into deep space, the more the better.

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