News in Focus ARECIBO OBSERVATORY/UNIV

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The world this week News in focus ARECIBO OBSERVATORY/UNIV. CENTRAL FLORIDA CENTRAL OBSERVATORY/UNIV. ARECIBO A main cable broke in half on 6 November and tore large gashes through a central portion of the telescope’s dish. LEGENDARY ARECIBO TELESCOPE WILL CLOSE FOREVER — SCIENTISTS ARE REELING Cable breaks caused damage too extensive to repair, ending an era in astronomical observation.

By Alexandra Witze mourning its loss. extraterrestrials might hear it, and from “I don’t know what to say,” says Robert Kerr, which the first confirmed extrasolar planet ne of astronomy’s most renowned a former director of the observatory. “It’s just was discovered, in 1992. telescopes — the 305-metre-wide unbelievable.” It has also done pioneering work in explor- radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto “I am totally devastated,” says Abel Méndez, ing many phenomena, including near-Earth Rico — is closing permanently. Engi- an astrobiologist at the University of Puerto asteroids and the puzzling celestial blasts neers cannot find a safe way to repair Rico at Arecibo who uses the observatory. known as fast radio bursts. All those lines of Oit, after two cables supporting the structure The Arecibo telescope, which was built in investigation have now been shut down for broke suddenly and catastrophically, one in 1963, was the world’s largest radio telescope good, although limited science will continue August and one in early November. for decades and has historical and modern at some smaller facilities on the Arecibo site. It is the end of one of the most iconic and importance in astronomy. It was the site The cables that broke helped to support a scientifically productive telescopes in the from which astronomers sent an interstellar 900-tonne platform of scientific instruments, history of astronomy — and scientists are radio message in 1974, in the hope that any which hangs above the main telescope dish.

News in focus The first cable slipped out of its socket and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory smashed panels at the edge of the dish, but in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Green Bank the second broke in half and tore huge gashes Observatory in West Virginia. in a central portion of the dish. Small amounts of science will continue at If any more cables fail — which could happen other portions of the Arecibo observatory, at any time — the entire platform could crash which encompasses more than the 305-metre into the dish below. The US National Science dish. For instance, two lidar facilities shoot Foundation (NSF), which owns the Arecibo lasers into the skies to study atmospheric Observatory, is working on plans to lower the phenomena. platform in a safe, controlled fashion. The Arecibo telescope had been upgraded But those plans will take weeks to develop. regularly, with several new instruments slated “Even attempts at stabilization or at testing for installation in the coming years. “The tele- the cables could result in accelerating the scope is in no way obsolete,” says Christopher catastrophic failure,” said Ralph Gaume, Salter, an astronomer at the Green Bank Obser- director of the NSF’s astronomy division, at vatory, who worked at Arecibo for years. a 19 November media briefing. Planned upgrades are now presumably on So the NSF decided to close the Arecibo dish hold, including a US$5.8-million antenna that

permanently. “This decision is not an easy one was being developed for the telescope’s plat- FLORIDA CENTRAL OBSERVATORY/UNIV. ARECIBO to make, but safety is the number-one priority,” Broken wires on the second failed cable. form and would have massively increased its said Sean Jones, head of the NSF’s mathemati- sensitivity. Brian Jeffs, an engineer at Brigham cal- and physical-sciences directorate. studies. The telescope pinged radio waves at Young University in Provo, Utah, who heads The closure comes as a shock to the wider near-Earth asteroids to reveal the shape and the project, says his team expects to discuss astronomical community. A social-media cam- spin of these threatening space rocks. Not options for its future with the NSF eventually. paign with the hashtag #WhatAreciboMeans having it “will be a big loss”, says Alan Harris, “Our greatest concerns are for the wonderful ToMe sprung up almost immediately, with an asteroid scientist in La Canada, California. scientific, technical, management and support astronomers, engineers and other scientists (China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture staff” of the observatory, he says. — many from Puerto Rico — sharing stories of Spherical Telescope (FAST), which opened in The observatory is a major centre for how the observatory had shaped their careers. 2016, does not currently have the ability to do science education in Puerto Rico, where it “Losing the Arecibo Observatory would be a such radar studies.) has fostered the careers of many astronomers big loss for science, for planetary defence and Some of the observatory’s scientific projects and engineers. And it has become a part of the for Puerto Rico,” said Desireé Cotto-Figueroa, could be transferred to other facilities, Gaume pop-culture lexicon, featuring in major movies an astronomer at the University of Puerto Rico said — and he expects scientists to propose such as Contact (1997), which was based on a Humacao, in an e-mail before the closure was where to move their research. Much of the novel by astronomer Carl Sagan, and the 1995 announced. work conducted at Arecibo, however, could James Bond film GoldenEye. be done only with its unique array of astronom- The most recent major radio-telescope dis- What went wrong ical instrumentation. “The Arecibo Telescope aster happened in 1988, when a 300-foot-wide NSF officials insist that the cable failures came is irreplaceable,” said a statement from two antenna at the Green Bank Observatory col- as a surprise. After the first, engineering teams major US radio-astronomy organizations, lapsed one night, owing to structural failure. spotted a handful of broken wires on the second cable, which was more crucial to holding up the platform, but they did not see it as a major problem because the weight it was car- rying was well within its design capacity. “It was not seen as an immediate threat,” says Ashley CAN DOGS SMELL Zauderer, programme director for Arecibo at the NSF. COVID? HERE’S WHAT But that main cable, which was installed in the early 1960s, had apparently degraded THE SCIENCE SAYS over time. Over the years, external review com- mittees have highlighted the ongoing need Canines seem to detect infections accurately, but to maintain the ageing cables. Zauderer said that maintenance in recent years had been researchers say large-scale studies are needed. completed according to schedule. Before this year, the last major cable prob- By Holly Else they say that dogs can detect the virus with lems at the observatory were in January 2014, almost perfect accuracy. Scientists involved when a magnitude-6.4 earthquake caused sher is an eccentric, Storm likes suggest that canines could help to control the damage to another of the main cables, which sunbathing and Maple loves to pandemic because they can screen hundreds engineers repaired. The ageing structure has use her brain. All three could play of people an hour in busy places such as air- sustained other shocks in recent years, includ- a part in controlling the COVID-19 ports or sports stadiums, and are cheaper to ing damage to an antenna and the dish caused pandemic, but they are not scientists use than conventional testing methods such by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Aor politicians. They are dogs. as the RNA-amplification technique RT-PCR. There is no estimate yet for the cost of And they are not alone. Around the world, But most of these findings have not yet been decommissioning the telescope. canines are being trained to detect the whiff peer reviewed or published, making it hard The science that has ground to a halt of COVID-19 infections. Dog trainers are claim- for the wider scientific community to evalu- includes Arecibo’s world-leading asteroid ing extraordinary results — in some cases, ate the claims. Researchers working on more