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.

  • Billiam@lemmy.world
    15·
    25 days ago

    It wasn’t just a radio telescope, but it was also a radar telescope. That’s what made it so important- it could actively measure the speed of objects in the solar system.

    IIRC, FAST wasn’t designed to do that, but was supposed to be retrofitted to add that capability after Arecibo’s collapse.