It’s sadly disintegrating.
The iconic SETI dish at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is sadly not long for this world. Recently, two supporting cables failed, destabilizing the structure such that it is no longer safe to effect repairs, according to the National Science Foundation. This means that the dish will have to be decommissioned and demolished.
The National Science Foundation came to this decision after numerous engineering assessments, which concluded that the structure would simply have to be taken down. They are now planning a controlled decommission of the dish, which stood for 57 years. But the dish is not Arecibo Observatory, just a part; per Ralph Gaume, the director of NSF’s Division of Astronomical Sciences:
I want to say this as forcefully as possible. We’re not closing the Arecibo Observatory.
Ralph Gaume, director, National Science Foundation, Division of Astronomical Sciences
Indeed, the deconstruction of the dish will have to be handled carefully, as the rest of the observatory needs to be protected from damage. Scientific studies will resume at the observatory once the site is deemed safe.
While obviously a blow to the scientific community, those of you that aren’t scientists are probably wondering why you shoulld care. Well, remember that the dish is iconic for many reasons. And two of them are part of pop culture; the dish featured in an episode of The X-Files , “Little Green Men“, which saw Mulder visiting the dish. It also was in the movie Contact, which like The X-Files, portrayed it doing exactly what it had done in real life. But perhaps most famously, it is the location of the final battle of between James Bond and Trevelyan in Goldeneye.
Source: Gizmodo
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