The American Arecibo telescope collapsed, and only China’s FAST "sky eye" remains in the world

　　The American Arecibo telescope collapsed, leaving the world with only one "sky eye" from China FAST

　　[Global Times reporter Ren Zhong] On the 1st local time, the National Science Foundation (NSF) confirmed that the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, known as one of the “two big eyes” of the earth, had collapsed.

　　According to a CNN report on the 1st, NSF said on Twitter that day, “The platform of the Arecibo radio telescope collapsed overnight, but fortunately there were no reports of casualties.” The engineer has assessed the damage and determined The three supporting towers of the telescope were all broken, and the 900-ton receiving platform fell onto the dish-shaped reflector below.

In addition, the support cable of the telescope has also broken.

　　Mendes, a physicist who has been working at the Arecibo Observatory for a long time, told the US "Business Insider", "The only place that is doing similar research now is the 500-meter spherical radio telescope in China, which is more sensitive than Arecibo. Lost. Arecibo has lost the ability to monitor weak radio signals 24 hours a day. Now we only have one eye."

　　According to CNN, the collapse was the final blow to one of the most powerful telescopes on earth.

For decades, the Arecibo telescope has been providing assistance for astronomical discoveries and has withstood the test of hurricanes, earthquakes and tropical storms.

However, it has been scarred.

On November 19, just before the telescope collapsed, NSF announced that the telescope would be shut down and removed in a controlled manner.

After the announcement of the closure of the Arecibo Observatory, 35,000 people participated in the network signature activity and requested the rescue of the telescope.

　　According to CNN, the telescope has made great contributions to important discoveries in radio astronomy and research on planets and the solar system.

Arecibo played a key role in the discovery of the first planet outside the solar system and helped astronomers identify potentially dangerous asteroids flying over the Earth.

In 1974, Arecibo discovered the first binary pulsar, which indirectly confirmed the predictions of general relativity.

In addition, the telescope also painted the first radar picture of the surface of Venus, and in 1992 it discovered the planetary system outside the solar system for the first time.