Massive Puerto Rico telescope featured in James Bond movie collapses
Updated: December 2, 2020 11:21:49 am
This photo provided by Aeromed shows the collapsed Radio Telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. The already damaged radio telescope that has played a key role in astronomical discoveries for more than half a century completely collapsed, falling onto the northern portion of the vast reflector dish more than 400 feet below. (Yamil Rodriguez/Aeromed via AP)
A massive radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory – one of the world’s largest – collapsed on Tuesday after sustaining severe damage since August, officials said, following 57 years of astronomical discoveries.
The deteriorating telescope’s 900-ton instrument platform, suspended by cables 450 feet (137 meters) above a 1,000-foot-wide (305 meters) bowl-shaped reflector dish, fell on Tuesday morning, the U.S. National Science Foundation said. No injuries were reported, it added.
The telescope – which received radio waves from space – had been used by scientists around the world to hunt for possible signatures of extraterrestrial life, study distant planets and find potentially hazardous asteroids. It also gained fame after pivotal scenes in the 1995 James Bond film “GoldenEye” starring Pierce Brosnan were shot there.
Two cables supporting the reflector dish had broken since August, causing damage and forcing officials to close the observatory as engineering firms retained by the University of Central Florida, which manages the observatory, studied ways to repair the damage.
In November, the engineering reviews led the NSF and the university to conclude that efforts to repair the structure would be too dangerous and that it would have to be demolished.
