ARECIBO TELESCOPE

Subject: Science & tech

Context: One of the world’s largest telescopes collapsed at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory on Tuesday.

It had been in operation for 57 years, but shut after engineers warned of the structure’s deterioration earlier this year.

Concept:

• The Arecibo Telescope has one of the most powerful radar employed to observe asteroids, planets, and ionosphere.
• The telescope has discovered the first exoplanets, prebiotic molecules in distant galaxies and first millisecond Pulsar. Prebiotic molecules are matter that lead to the origin of life.
• The Telescope had served as a hub in the search of extra-terrestrial life and has picked up several radio signals from alien civilisations. It has played a major role in tracking killer asteroids heading towards the earth.
• In 1993, the scientists Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. With the help of the observatory they monitored a binary Pulsar. It was the first evidence for the existence of gravitational waves.
• The telescope had become a symbol of Puerto Rico. It drew more than 90000 visitors every year.

    Why did the Arecibo Telescope collapse?

• On November 19, 2020, the National Science Foundation of the United States recommended controlled demolition of the telescope as two cables broke off threatening the survival of the observatory.
• The foundation came to this conclusion after several assessments found that the telescope structure is in danger of catastrophic failure and the cables of the telescope are no longer capable of carrying its weight. The receiver platform of the telescope alone weighs 900 tonnes. The receiver platform collapsed 450 feet into the 1000 feet wide dish.
• Earlier, the telescope had survived several hurricanes and earthquakes.