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World-Renowned Arecibo Telescope Collapses In Puerto Rico

Published December 2, 2020 at 11:45 AM CST
This aerial view shows the damage at the Arecibo Observatory after one of the main cables holding the receiver broke in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, on Dec. 1, 2020. The radio telescope in Puerto Rico, which once starred in a James Bond film, collapsed Tuesday when its 900-ton receiver platform fell 450 feet (140 meters) and smashed onto the radio dish below. (Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images)
This aerial view shows the damage at the Arecibo Observatory after one of the main cables holding the receiver broke in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, on Dec. 1, 2020. The radio telescope in Puerto Rico, which once starred in a James Bond film, collapsed Tuesday when its 900-ton receiver platform fell 450 feet (140 meters) and smashed onto the radio dish below. (Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images)

The field of astronomy has suffered a devastating loss this week. The Arecibo telescope — a platform of radio receivers suspended over a massive dish — collapsed on Tuesday in Puerto Rico.

The National Science Foundation, which operated the telescope, was planning to dismantle it after two cables broke in the past few months. Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd talks to Alyssa Goodman, astronomy professor at Harvard University.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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