At the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico a wire rope broke again and caused further damage to the world-famous antenna dish. This was announced by the University of Central Florida, which is responsible for the operation of the instrument. The crack occurred on Friday, no one was injured. The wire rope broke under the additional load and fell onto the bowl, causing additional damage. The new damage to the instrument occurred shortly before the arrival of engineers who are supposed to carry out temporary emergency repairs.

New damage shortly before Beginning of the first repairs At the beginning of August a wire at the observatory broke and had caused considerable damage to the huge primary mirror of the radio telescope. It had plowed its way through the mirror for about 30 meters and exposed the ground below. The rope was part of the safeguarding of the platform above the mirror, which was more than 300 meters in diameter, and with its removal the load on the other safety devices had obviously become too great. The cause of the first cable break has not yet been found. The university assures that they are working under high pressure on further security. The research work was largely discontinued in August, but the scientists are left with the data that had been collected until then.

As the university announced weeks after the first damage those responsible tried using a structural model to find out its cause and to determine which parts are now under particularly high loads. The new crack was apparently not foreseen. Now they want to urge particular speed with the delivery of two ordered replacement ropes. The load on the undamaged ropes is to be reduced and the entire structure is to be additionally secured with steel girders. The start of the repairs was scheduled for Tuesday, now it has to be seen how this race against time for the new damage will end.

The repair work and the search for the cause are made more difficult by age the plant. The gigantic observatory had been completed 1963 and for a long time it was the largest radio telescope in the world. 2016 it was overtaken by the Chinese radio telescope FAST (Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope). The Arecibo Telescope and its monumental architecture are world famous not only because of their scientific importance, but also because of their appearances as a backdrop in films such as James Bond 007 – GoldenEye and the X-Files. A few years ago it was on the brink of failure, but could be saved. It has also survived several hurricanes and earthquakes.

(mho)