Arecibo failure report published

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UBT - Timbo
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Arecibo failure report published

Post by UBT - Timbo »

Hi all

If anyone is interested, a report has now been published concerning the failure of some cables and supports that held up the receivers that were suspended above the main dish as Arecibo, which is where the SETI@home project acquired most of its data.

The following link will take you to a news website about this:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/06/ ... _analysis/

In summary:
The collapse of the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory in 2020 is being attributed to zinc creep – slow deformation due to stress – in the telescope's cable spelter sockets, according to a committee report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

This effect may also have been accelerated by the effect of low-level electric current on the structure of zinc – a phenomenon known as electroplasticity.



As for the Arecibo site itself? Take a look at the satellite image here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Areci ... FQAw%3D%3D

And there will be a new science based centre opening in 2025:

https://new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-arecibo-c3 ... -nsfs-75th


Background info (previously covered on our SETI forum, which has now been archived):

September 2017: https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/25/ ... ia_damage/

August 2020: https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/12/ ... y_damaged/

November 2020: https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/19/ ... missioned/

regards
Tim
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