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The dish at Arecibo Observatory has been destroyed by the instrument platform collapsing into it. It had already been declared unsalvageable after critical load-bearing cable failures.
Three photos from my trip there in 2006.
I will be raising a glass in Arecibo's honour tonight.
Three photos from my trip there in 2006.
I will be raising a glass in Arecibo's honour tonight.
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On the plus side, now it's fallen down it's safe to work on.
We can rebuild it, we have the technology...
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I watched Scott Manley's video about it a week ago, when the cables first started snapping. It's made a big hole in our radio telescopy, for sure, but the biggest loss is to our RADAR telescopy - i.e. what's used to detect and track near-earth asteroids! =:o[ ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEe4Wlc5Vp0 )
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Well, not me personally, but there's already a move on to get people interested in it and fund raising is already underway. Yeah, I saw Scott manley's video, I'm a regular over there. As he said, it's not unique but it is the best radar telescope we have.
Frankly though, we need that. Because it's better to have it, and not detect any incoming asteroids, than not have it and fail to see one in time to stop it. I don't know how much rebuilding it would cost, but it's got to be cheaper than starting over from scratch.. and a hell of a lot cheaper than repairing the damage after some stray space rock has put a hole in a city.
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