Puerto Rico’s iconic Arecibo Observatory will not be replaced after it collapsed to ruin 2 years ago. Dramatic photos and video show pieces of the broken telescope being overtaken by the jungle.

• Before and after pictures Arecibo Observatory show dramatically collapse thus ending an era in space exploration.

• Astronomers mourned the loss of the observatory they faced natural disasters.

• For nearly 60 years, the Arecibo Observatory has made significant contributions to astronomy.

Arecibo Observatory, The legendary radio telescope, nestled in the lush mountains of Puerto Rico, has served as a primary lookout into the cosmos for nearly six decades.

From tracking asteroids to discovering the first one planets outside our solar systemArecibo made a fundamental contribution to our knowledge of the universe.

The telescope’s observing equipment hung from a platform strung over a 1,000-foot radio antenna until December 1, 2020. After a series of disasters, from earthquakes to hurricanes, cables that support that platform have issuedcausing the telescope to collapse onto the huge antenna below it.

Here’s how the telescope behaves two years after its collapse.

The telescope is embedded in a natural sinkhole in northwestern Puerto Rico.

Members of Arecibo’s neighboring communities helped build the observatory.

The observatory first opened in November 1963. At first it was made of metal mesh, which meant that you could see through it to the abyss below.

Arecibo was a workhorse for astronomers.

In 1974, it broadcast the first radio message intended for an extraterrestrial audience. The coded message contained detailed chemical formulas for the components of DNA, as well as simple drawings of a human figure and Arecibo.

He discovered the first known exoplanet orbiting a pulsar, or the dense, radiation-emitting remnants of a collapsed giant star, in 1992.

Teleskop was a movie star thanks to his performances in “GoldenEye” and “Contact”.

The radio telescope had a 1,000-foot-wide, aluminum antenna that covered 18 acres in northwestern Puerto Rico.

The cables helped support a metal platform high above the vessel.

The receiver was on a 900-ton platform, suspended 450 feet above the antenna, on a 304-foot jib.

The story continues

It collapsed in December 2020, after being hit by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and rocked by an earthquake.

Videos of the fall show it began when cables connecting the suspension platform to one of the towers snapped.

There are 19,000 remaining plates on the plate from the original 37,000.

Side-by-side images of the Arecibo Observatory, before and after its collapse, show the dramatic damage that ended an era of space exploration.

The National Science Foundation recently announced that it will not rebuild Arecibo. The legacy of the telescope, however, will live on.

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