By Dánica Coto - The Associated Press
SAN JUAN— The National Science Foundation (NSF, in English) announced this Thursday the closure of the Arecibo radio telescope, in Puerto Rico, which is a serious blow to scientists around the world who have used it to track planets, asteroids and even extraterrestrial life.
In August, an auxiliary cable broke, opening a 100-foot gash in the reflector disk and damaging the dome.
On November 6, a break in one of the main steel cables caused further damage and
authorities warned that the entire structure was in danger of collapsing.
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The NSF, an independent agency funded by the federal government, said that due to this damage, it is too dangerous to keep the single dish radio telescope, the largest in the world, operating.
This huge mechanism detects radio waves, unlike a regular telescope that picks up electromagnetic waves in the range of visible light.
Foundation officials said that even if the workers managed to repair all the damage,
the engineers concluded that the structure would remain unstable in the long term.
"This decision was not an easy one for NSF, but the safety of the people is our highest priority," said Sean Jones, agency assistant director for the Directory of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
"We understand how much Arecibo means to this community and to Puerto Rico," he
added.
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Jones said that his goal was to preserve the telescope without endangering people: "We have not found a way that allows us to do so," he argued.
The telescope was built in the 1960s with funds from the Department of Defense, as part of efforts to defend against ballistic missiles.
In its 57 years of operations, it has weathered hurricanes, intense humidity, and a recent series of strong earthquakes.
The telescope and its 1,000-foot-diameter disk appear in the film
Contact
, starring Jodie Foster, and in
GoldenEye
, from the James Bond series.
Scientists around the world have used it to track asteroids en route to Earth, conduct Nobel Prize-winning research, or determine whether a planet can be habitable.
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Ralph Gaume, director of the NFS Division of Astronomical Sciences, stressed that the decision has nothing to do with the observatory's capabilities.
Scientists have used it to make countless scientific discoveries, such as confirming that pulsars are superdense neutron stars, to discover the first planets beyond our solar system, and to
convey a message to the cosmos in hopes of reaching intelligent extraterrestrial life. .
It is also Earth's primary sentinel to
identify if certain asteroids are on their way to hit our planet.
It had also served to detect gravitational waves, (which have helped to verify Albert Einstein's theories of relativity), and to look for neutral hydrogen, which reveals how certain cosmic structures are formed.
"The telescope is currently at severe risk of an unexpected and uncontrolled collapse," Gaume said.