But others saw a grave threat to Arecibo.
Lebron: When I saw that they didn’t know why this cable came out and broke, I said, “OK, that’s very, very, very bad.” If the ones that have the task of maintenance don’t know why a cable broke off, that means it will fall down.
On Nov. 6, one of the four main cables atop the same tower snapped. The probability of losing Arecibo entirely began to sink in.
Méndez: The big issue in all the meetings was that the NSF was holding everything up. They were so scared of the observatory collapsing at any moment that they imposed strong restrictions about repairs.
The impression that I got from the staff of the observatory was that they had the engineers — we could start anytime. They were eager to start repairs.
But NSF said, no, don’t risk life. And I was — many people were mad at this decision. And you have to see the point of the NSF that this was a risky operation and people might lose their life there if something happens.
But we know that people were willing to risk their life.
On Nov. 20, 2020, NSF announced that, after consulting with engineering firms, it had determined that safe repairs were impossible and that it would close Arecibo in a “controlled decommissioning.”
Before that could happen, on Dec. 1, the rest of the cables atop the southeast tower snapped and the 900-ton platform collapsed, swinging across the dish and smashing through the reflectors in the valley below.
Méndez: I thought that I would never see something like that. I thought that the observatory would outlast my life.
Altschuler: It was horrible. I tell you, when I heard about it, I cried. Honestly, I tell you, I shed tears. And this was a long time ago, but I spent 17 years of my life there. And my wife and I embraced and we just cried a bit.
It wasn’t just a telescope somewhere on top of a mountain, you know — we lived there. It was our home, it was a family. Before the problems, you know — even during the problems — people felt like they belonged to the Arecibo Observatory, and they were proud of it.
Pantoja: This grieving thing is a weird thing. I haven’t been back to the observatory. But when that time comes, that is gonna be hard. I did that drive so many times. Just before you arrive to the observatory, you’re going through this beautiful path in the mountains, and you get a peek of it. Because it’s high. That’s what you would see: the towers and everything. And I can imagine going there and then not seeing it.
I think that’s going to be the hard part that I’ve been thinking about — that I’ll feel all the things that I’m missing, that I will miss, it will hit me concretely there.
Arianna Colón Cesaní, undergraduate student at UPR, Mayagüez: I saw myself coming back to Puerto Rico — after I finished my graduate studies in the United States, and then, you know, making a happy living over here. When Arecibo crashed down, it kind of put it in perspective, like, “Wait, I might not be able to come back at all, I might have to go elsewhere.” And then that’s it, because there are no other options over here.
Fighting for rebirth
When NSF announced its decision to decommission Arecibo, it emphasized that outreach and education activities would continue onsite. But as researchers around the world mourned the loss of Arecibo on overflowing Zoom calls, a movement to replace the telescope itself began to emerge.
Lebron: What is the scientific plan for the facility that they want to put there? I think that NSF hasn’t said that clearly yet. I would like to know because I am a scientist. Now we have some call from NSF that they want to strengthen our education and cultural things, but — I am a scientist! I am a scientist! Yeah, I’m happy with the cultural, I’m happy with the education, I am happy at university. But where is my science?
Pantoja: If you’re trying to mitigate that big loss with outreach, I mean, it wouldn’t be enough. You would also want some people to be able to return to their communities to pursue a career in astronomy.
In January 2021, a white paper began circulating, proposing a next-generation Arecibo telescope. Instead of one giant dish, it would comprise a networked array of smaller dishes and offer twice the sensitivity of the original, with a field of view 500 times larger and an expanded frequency range. In April, NSF convened a workshop to discuss future options for Arecibo.
Méndez: When I read the white paper, I was blown over. The night after, I didn’t sleep well. I was like, “Wow, if this becomes a reality, what an instrument we will have.”
And I think that was probably what scientists in the 1960s felt when talking about constructing the original Arecibo telescope, that it’s a sci-fi machine with unbelievable sensitivity. And of all the things you think that they were planning to do — like study the ionosphere, like the first maps of Venus — nobody predicted that they would detect exoplanets or all the pulsars that helped to confirm relativity.
I want to see something majestic there that even the original observatory would be proud of.