Astronomy icon collapses and in ruin

Puerto Rico’s huge telescope at the Arecibo Observatory, suffered a 1000 ft gash to its dish when cable snapped in August and has totally collapsed.

The observatory was built in the 1960s, was once the largest of its kind in the world.

The National Science Foundation’s Arceibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, known for its studies of asteroids and aliens and for its cameo in Bond films  collapsed bringing down the 900-tonne platform that hung above the radio dish fell 140 meters (450 feet) into the structure below around 8 am local time causing massive damage.

“We heard a loud sound, a loud bang outside the control room. We started to see the eventual downfall of the observatory, “ Angel Vazquez, Chief of telescope operations and a worker at Arecibo for four decades.