Arecibo
I am hearing (rather late) that the Arecibo radio telescope has had a problem. The telescope is a giant dish that has instruments suspended at the focal point by some cables. The object suspended, has a mass of about 900 tonnes. It consisted of a gantry and a moveable ‘dome’ that can be steered to effectively change where the telescope looks.
900 tonnes suspended above the dish
One of the cables supporting this gantry came from its socket. Fortunately there is redundancy, and other cables are taking the load.
A detailed view of the beam-steering mechanism. The triangular platform at the top is fixed, and the azimuth arm rotates beneath it. To the right is the Gregorian sub-reflector, and to the left is the remains of the 96-foot-long (29 m) line feed tuned to 430 MHz (destroyed by Hurricane Maria). Also to the right is the catwalk and part of the rectangular waveguide that brings the 2.5 MW 430 MHz radar transmitter's signal up to the focal region.
The cables are incredibly thick, as they have to support tonnes of mass, and as such the cables themselves have masses measured in the tonnes. The cable that came from the socket in the gantry smashed into the dish, which consists of a wire mesh, and damaged it.
This is an iconic instrument, I hope that it can be repaired.
Links
New Scientist Tweet (source of title image)
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