InDecember 2020 , the Arecibo Observatory ’s radio telescope was destroyed when a ruinous cable failure caused its 900 - ton weapons platform to collapse onto the iconic dish below . Now , the National Science Foundation has named the shop steward of the site ’s future as an educational activity center , mark the likely end of Arecibo ’s astronomical enquiry endeavors .
Original plans to turn the destroyed radio scope situation into an education center were madepublic in October 2022 , when the NSF begin seeking proposition for managing the new project . At the metre , the planned opening of such an instruction centre of attention was 2023 .
Now , the NSF has announced that New York ’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory , the University of Maryland in Baltimore County , San Juan ’s University of the Sacred Heart , and the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras will manage Arecibo ’s changeover , and the new center is expected to open in early 2024 .
The Arecibo Observatory site undergoing demolition in December 2021.Photo:Wikimedia Commons
There were already plans to demolish the Arecibo dish when the structure collapsed ; in November 2020,NSF officials announcedthat the failure of two support cable had destabilized the telescope beyond repair . But the demolition did n’t come in in prison term , and less than two weeks by and by , cameras on the Arecibo site captured thepainful 10 seconds ( complete with audio)of line snap and platform collapse that marked the wireless scope ’s demise .
As thepublication Science report in October 2022 , plans for Arecibo ’s replacement were refined as the NSF sought to trim back spending on the observatory , which be the foundation $ 7.5 million per twelvemonth . The NSF ’s investment in the education centre will be $ 5.5 million , distribute over five years , Nature report .
The substance ’s stated goals are to advertise STEM education , broaden participation in STEM , and build new partnerships while building on existing single . Sean Jones , the adjunct theatre director for the directorate of mathematical and forcible sciences at NSF , told AP in October 2022that the United States has other radar facility that can do what Arecibo was doing for its 57 - year term of office , hence the veteran observation tower not need a rebuild .
Arecibo was entire to radio astronomyfor its nearly 60 yr of surgical operation ; its bequest persists , as its datum is still being used in new observation , like the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves ( NANOGrav)’s12.5 - year dataset . That dataset determine the microscope stage for the International Pulsar Timing Array pool independently announcing the first signals suggestive of agravitational wave background earlier this year .
There are presently no plans to expend cat’s-paw on the Arecibo Observatory site for research , theNSF told Nature , though it would view proposal for using existing or raw equipment on the land site . For now , though , bear an educational activity meat — less than what many astronomers hoped for , but more than the sorry nation the site is currently in .
More : Wrecked Arecibo Observatory May Undergo a Downsized Resurrection
Gravitational waveRadio telescopes
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