“Arecibo” is an astronomical Observatory located in Puerto Rico at a height of 497 meters above sea level. With its help, the national science Foundation and Cornell are conducting various studies. The radio telescope, “Arecibo” is one of the largest in the world, because the diameter of the mirror reflector is 305 meters. The recent hurricane “Maria” brought the telescope down, broke the radar antenna and damaging the rubble of her mirror. Scientists now estimate the scale of the tragedy, but it is already clear that the recovery of expensive equipment will take a lot of time and money.
The hurricane broke in half 29-metre radar antenna telescope and fell with a 150-meter-high debris of smashed main mirror reflector and damaged the auxiliary mirror. Luckily, the rest of the construction of the telescope was not seriously hurt. The work “Arecibo” was completely shut down even before the hurricane, but all the preparations are aimed at protecting the expensive of the structure against adverse elements, did not save him. On 20 September, the hurricane with all his might hit Puerto Rico. The wind speed of up to 250 kilometers per hour. The island remained without electricity, and dish of the telescope scored 64 inches of precipitation.
This month the work of the telescope was suspended because of another hurricane – “Irma”. But at the time it was done, and on the 9th of September, he earned again. At the same time “Arecibo” sucks, and experts do not undertake to give even an approximate date when it will resume its work. Now to fully assess the damage and understand what repairs will be needed so that the Observatory was able to resume observations of the cosmos. On the island, by the way, there is still no electricity, that only complicates the situation.
Hurricane “Maria” seriously damaged the famous radio telescope, “Arecibo”
Sergey Grey