Major damage to the giant Arecibo radio telescope

The rupture of a metal support cable caused major damage to the giant radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The cause of this accident, which occurred during the night from Sunday to Monday, is not known, and a commission of inquiry has been opened. The fall of the cable caused a hole of about 30 meters in the surface of the large metal dish and also damaged the secondary antenna which was suspended tens of meters above.

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The telescope is operated by the US federal agency NSF, but also receives funding from NASA, which uses it as a radar to monitor asteroids that could threaten Earth. In the past, the antenna has been used to search for extraterrestrial radio signals and in 1974 even sent a symbolic message to a star cluster 25,000 light years away. It was made famous by serving as a playground for James Bond in the 1995 film Goldeneye .

The 305 m diameter main antenna, installed at the bottom of a natural depression, was until 2016 the largest single-piece radio telescope in the world. It was dethroned by Fast, a Chinese instrument 500 m in diameter.