Jaw-Dropping Report Reveals Causes of Arecibo Telescope Collapse
gizmodo.com
An investigation by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found Hurricane Maria worsened a slow decay of the Arecibo Observatory's support cables.

Hurricane Maria did major damage to the Puerto Rican telescope in 2017 that lead to the collapse of this world class iconic radio telescope 3 years later after failing to get funded and maintained. It was the largest for the USA by a long shot at 305 meters. China’s FAST became the largest at 500 meters in 2016. This is Trump’s (2017-2020) legacy for Puerto Rico.

  • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    221·
    20 days ago

    “in over a century of successful use prior to the Arecibo Telescope’s collapse, all the forensic investigations agreed that such a spelter socket failure had never been reported.” The report went on: “The only hypothesis the committee could develop that provides a plausible but unprovable answer … is that the socket zinc creep was unexpectedly accelerated in the Arecibo Telescope’s uniquely powerful electromagnetic radiation environment.” In other words, the sockets’ role in suspending such a powerful radio transmitter somehow contributed to the 2020 catastrophe.

    interesting.

    • Crackhappy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      63·
      20 days ago

      I retract what I said. I’m an idiot. That is so clearly a spoof I should have known.