The Death of Arecibo

Apparently, the radio telescope at Arecibo is no more. According to This item on Phys.org the radio telescope has completely collapsed.

“The telescope’s 900-ton receiver platform and the Gregorian dome—a structure as tall as a four-story building that houses secondary reflectors—fell onto the northern portion of the vast reflector dish more than 400 feet below.

The U.S. National Science Foundation had earlier announced that it would close the radio telescope. An auxiliary cable snapped in August, causing a 100-foot gash on the 1,000-foot-wide (305-meter-wide) dish and damaged the receiver platform that hung above it. Then a main cable broke in early November.

The collapse stunned many scientists who had relied on what was until recently the largest radio telescope in the world.”

This has been a long time coming according to this story from 2017 . Nonetheless, I still find it incredibly sad.