Recently, the scene of the collapse of the Arecibo telescope in the United States was released. The large radio telescope in Puerto Rico collapsed on the 1st due to its out-of-control structure.
The National Science Foundation of the United States released a video at the time of the incident on the 3rd. The accident did not cause casualties. It is reported that the remaining steel cables on the three towers were unable to support the instrument platform weighing about 900 tons, causing the whole platform to fall on the reflector panel with a diameter of 305 meters, so Arecibo completely ended its observation life.
Before the collapse, the telescope was last used on August 6, and a joint of the locking auxiliary steel cable failed a few days later. The cause of the failure is reported to be a production error. On November 6, another steel cable broke. On November 19, the National Science Foundation of the United States announced that it would close the Arecibo telescope, but the plan collapsed before the plan was implemented.
The Arecibo Telescope was built in 1963 with a caliber caliber 305 meters. Before the completion of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST) of the China Sky Eye in September 2016, Arecibo Telescope was the world’s largest single-caliber radio telescope. In 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico hard, causing the first break of the Arecibo telescope steel cable, and the cable has broken many times since then.
