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The previous year, the NSF had announced it was preparing to reallocate funds between existing facilities in order to initiate “new activities.” These initiatives included the funding and development of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile, starting in 2003. Arecibo was among the first facilities on the chopping block, despite its continued productivity. The National Science Foundation, which supported Arecibo, implemented a 15% budget cut that year across its Division of Astronomical Sciences.

commitment to Arecibo began to falter in 2006.

In the past decades, it also played a large role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, including broadcasting the first terrestrial message to outer space.īut for all its achievements, U.S. In 1992, it was the first observatory to spot planets outside Earth’s solar system. And because two of the support towers maintained tension as the collapse occurred, some of the falling equipment was yanked across the side of the dish rather than falling straight down through its focal point.Completed in 1963, Arecibo collected data that led to one Nobel Prize and played a critical role in a second. He added that strands of the remaining three cables had been unraveling in recent days, increasing the strain. "When we looked outside the control room, we started to see the eventual downfall of the observatory," Vázquez said. In an interview that was posted to Twitter by scientist Wilbert Andrés Ruperto, Vázquez says he and other staff members had been in the process of removing valuable equipment from the facility when they heard a loud bang outside. Ángel Vázquez, the observatory's director of telescope operations, says he was in the control room area when the equipment began to plummet to the ground. The Arecibo Observatory had been slated last month to be withdrawn from service, with the NSF citing the risk of an "uncontrolled collapse" because of failures in the cables that suspended the platform and its huge Gregorian dome above the 1,000-foot-wide reflector dish. The NSF released footage taken from two cameras, one on the ground and another mounted on a drone. The dramatic collapse was captured on video, showing the mammoth structure falling in the early morning, after the last of its cables unraveled. "As we move forward, we will be looking for ways to assist the scientific community and maintain our strong relationship with the people of Puerto Rico." "NSF is saddened by this development," the agency said. No injuries were reported, according to the National Science Foundation, which oversees the renowned research facility. Arecibo's 900-ton equipment platform, suspended some 500 feet above the dish, fell overnight after the last of its healthy support cables failed to keep it in place. The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has collapsed, after weeks of concern from scientists over the fate of what was once the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. It's seen here in November, after a cable damaged its dish. The Arecibo Observatory's mammoth telescope collapsed overnight.