Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory Takes Unprecedented and Unexplained Damage

The Arecibo Observatory, located in Puerto Rico, took the latest damage in a string of many mishaps through the years. The cause of the current misfortune is still unexplained.

The Observatory's Importance

Arecibo is one of the world's most powerful telescopes. SETI, or the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, started here, together with the visionaries who earnestly thought that we could find alien life in the future.

The observatory has been used countless times by astronomers since 1963 when it started operations. Arecibo has since been instrumental in producing many scientific discoveries about the solar system, the galaxy, and beyond.

It has been involved in many accidents in the past. Earlier this week on August 10, around 2:45 AM. A metal cable support got snapped and had fallen on the dish. The impact created a gash 100 feet long in its aluminum. The steel cable mesh that supported the dish also broke, causing debris to fall below.

University of Central Florida (UCF) spokesperson Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala said that nothing like this happened to Arecibo in the past. UCF is one institution among many which operate Arecibo. Engineers have not determined the cause of the damage. The telescope has currently paused observation activity.

Other Disasters

As Hurricane Maria devastated the country in September 2017, power was unavailable for many months. One of Arecibo'sArecibo's antennae, 29 meters in length installation above the observatory, was destroyed and punctured a hole in the aluminum dish. The observatory was temporarily run with generators due to the storm.

Last January 2020, earthquakes also made it impossible to conduct observations. Some tremors reached up to 6.4 magnitudes, and people were barred from going to the site. In 2014, an earthquake, also with a 6.4 scale, damaged the telescope.

Arecibo also had almost been shut down in the past due to funding uncertainties.

Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, astronomers have been prevented from using the observatory. The work continues, however, since the telescope can be remotely operated.

Last July, as Isaias ravaged Puerto Rico, astronomers wanted to observe an asteroid. As soon as it passed, Arecibo was in operation, and researchers got to study the celestial object for 2.5 hours, just managing to learn its orbit and shape.

The Cost of Damages

The latest accident occurred while the facility still had not fully recovered from Hurricane Maria's effects three years ago. The structural damage was repaired, but the dish is still undergoing recalibration to restore its past sensitivity to radio waves of high frequency. Planetary Habitability Laboratory director and astrobiologist Abel Méndez says it takes time to do so. He says the observatory is not as sensitive now, and with this latest unfortunate event, they will to restart their efforts again.

As Arecibo struggled from the effects of Hurricane Maria, it missed the opportunity to study the asteroid ''Oumuamua when it passed Earth, says Méndez.

Officials still do not know how long it will take to repair the facility fully. The problem may be debilitating for those who use it to detect asteroids near the Earth. 

Even as Méndez feels frustrated, he believes the observatory is resilient enough to rebound from this latest event, as Arecibo has always done.