What might seem too large to be anything but invincible can often be brought low by seemingly innocuous things. Think of the once-unsinkable Titanic — an adjective proven wrong on its very first voyage — or the Hindenburg, floating along majestically until a fire broke out and consumed the mighty aircraft in a matter of seconds.
Such a tragedy seems to have befallen one of the scientific community’s true jewels as well: the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Even if you’re not into astronomy, you’re probably somewhat familiar with Arecibo Observatory.
As one of the largest radio telescopes in the world, Arecibo is also a bit of an icon. It’s been around since 1963 and it’s dominated by a massive, bright white dish that fills a sinkhole in a Puerto Rican mountain range.
That has put the array in the public eye on many occasions, including the films Contact and GoldenEye .
The Arecibo Observatory has also been central to some amazing discoveries.
The first exoplanets were discovered through Arecibo in 1992 and it has played a significant role in the breakthrough regarding the existence of gravitational waves. Arecibo also gave us the first map of the surface of Venus and corrected the rotation rate of Mercury to 59 days, which was previously thought to be 88 days.
The Arecibo telescope is also one of the key instruments for detecting and tracking near-earth objects like asteroids.
And, unfortunately, it has suffered a major setback after a cable broke.
As the University of Central Florida, which manages the observatory, explained in a press release , a three-inch cable snapped at about 2:45 am on August 10 and tore through the 1,000-foot diameter dish, leaving a gash about 100 feet long. Several panels on the dome over top of the dish were damaged as well, as was the walkway to access the dome.
Officials are still inspecting and assessing the damage but operations at the observatory have been suspended pending repairs.
Repairs could take a considerable amount of time, too.
The observatory’s location has put it in harm’s way on several occasions and it has always survived, but it’s still under repair for damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
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Nevertheless, the observatory’s operators are determined to get it up and running again. “Our focus is assuring the safety of our staff, protecting the facilities and equipment, and restoring the facility to full operations as soon as possible, so it can continue to assist scientists around the world,” said Francisco Cordova, the director of the observatory.
