Exact moment of major Arecibo telescope collapse captured on video
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Snap.
The legendary 1,000-foot-wide Arecibo Observatory's telescope, a giant dish embedded in the verdant Puerto Rico forest, experienced a major collapse on Dec. 1. A 900-ton platform suspended over the observatory fell, destroying much of the already crumbling dish. On Thursday, the U.S. National Science Foundation released footage of the collapse from two different angles:
At 10 seconds into the video below, a camera affixed to a control tower captures a cable snapping, and then the platform falls. Dust soon rises from the destruction.
Just after the one-minute mark, a drone was in opportunistic position to film cables violently snapping from a support tower. Read more...