Tag Archives: National Science Foundation

Arecibo telescope that received FRBs, featured in Bond film, will close forever

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Scientists are upset that one of astronomy’s most renowned telescopes — the 305-metre-wide radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico — is closing permanently, as engineers gave up on its repair after two cables supporting the megastructure broke catastrophically, one in August and another in early November.

Featured in many movies such as Contact (1997), which was based on a novel by astronomer Carl Sagan, and the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, the telescope, installed in 1963, had apparently degraded over time despite periodic repairs and maintenance as per the schedule.

In January 2014, a magnitude-6.4 earthquake caused damage to one of the main cables, which engineers repaired. The ageing structure has suffered another shock in 2017 when its antenna was damaged by Hurricane Maria.

“Even attempts at stabilization or at testing the cables could result in accelerating the catastrophic failure,” said Ralph Gaume at the US National Science Foundation, which owns the observatory. However, limited science will continue at some smaller facilities at the Arecibo site, said NSF.

Scientists are sharing memories and grief on social media using the hashtag #WhatAreciboMeansToMe trending on Twitter. The loss is felt acutely in Puerto Rico, where the observatory is a cradle of science education and career development.“I don’t know what to say,” said Robert Kerr, a former director of the observatory. “I am totally devastated,” wrote Abel Méndez, an astrobiologist at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo who uses the observatory regularly.

Arecibo Observatory

Damaged Arecibo telescope/ Credit: University of Central Florida/Arecibo Observatory

The Arecibo telescope, built in 1963, was the world’s largest radio telescope for decades and it was from this site that astronomers sent an interstellar radio message in 1974, in the hope that any extraterrestrials might hear it, and where the first confirmed extrasolar planet was discovered, in 1992.

It has also done pioneering work in exploring near-Earth asteroids and the puzzling celestial blasts known as fast radio bursts (FRBs). All those lines of investigation have now been shut down for good.

Assessing the damage

The cables that broke helped to support a 900-tonne platform of the main telescope dish. The first cable slipped out of its socket and smashed panels at the edge of the dish, but the second broke in half and tore huge gashes in a central portion of the dish, said NSF. A high-resolution satellite image, produced at Nature’s request by Planet, shows the green of the vegetation below through large holes in the dish.

If any more cables fail — which could happen at any time — the entire platform could crash into the dish below. The US National Science Foundation (NSF), which owns the Arecibo Observatory, is working on plans to lower the platform in a safe, controlled fashion.

“Even attempts at stabilization or at testing the cables could result in accelerating the catastrophic failure,” said Ralph Gaume, director of the NSF’s astronomy division, at a media briefing last week. So the NSF decided to close the Arecibo dish permanently. “This decision is not an easy one to make, but safety is the number-one priority,” said Sean Jones, head of the NSF’s mathematical and physical sciences directorate.

Wildlife Report Calls for Better Human-Wildlife Management to End Conflicts

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Stressing the need to strengthen human-wildlife conflict management across India in view of up to 32 wildlife species damaging life and property in this nation of 1.2 billion people, a recent study published in the July 2017 edition of Human Dimensions of Wildlife sought a better management approach to end the conflict.

The researchers have called for the identification of effective prevention techniques, strengthening existing compensation schemes, and an open inclusive dialogue between local communities, governments, and conservationists.

The authors of the study, “History, Location, and Species Matter: Insights for Human–Wildlife Conflict Mitigation,” are Dr. Krithi Karanth, conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Sahila Kudalkar, research associate with the Centre for Wildlife Studies.

The study examined the patterns of human-wildlife conflict and mitigation use by 5,196 families from 2011 to 2014 from 2855 villages neighboring 11 wildlife reserves across western, central, and southern India. The study was designed to help inform better policies to mitigate human-wildlife conflict.

Some of the results of the research are here:

Of the more than 5,000 households surveyed around 11 reserves in India, crops were lost by 71% of households, livestock by 17%, and human injury and death were reported by 3% of households.

Rural families use up to 12 different mitigation techniques to protect their crops, livestock and property. Night-time watch, scare devices, and fencing are the most common mitigation techniques used by rural families in the periphery of reserves.

Families near reserves in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh were most likely to use mitigation. In recent years, these states have recorded high levels of damage by wildlife, and are among states that provide the highest compensation payments across India. In contrast, families in Rajasthan were least likely to protect crops and property.

Across wildlife reserves, people reported average crop losses amounting to Rs. 12,559 (US$194) , and Rs.2,883 (US$44)of livestock losses annually. Such losses constitute a significant chunk of India’s rural economy, where the majority of the population earns less than Rs. 5,000 (US$77) per month.

Said Dr. Karanth: “Resolving human-wildlife conflict requires revisiting the goals of conservation policies and investments by people and organizations. This is especially true with respect to effort and money deployed associated with mitigation and protection. People may be better served by deploying early warning, compensation and insurance programs rather than by focusing heavily on mitigation.”

Said Sahila Kudalkar, “Combined with high poverty, and low awareness regarding government compensation, such families may be most vulnerable to impacts of wildlife damage upon their livelihoods.”

The study was supported by DST Ramanujan Fellowship, National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation, and Rufford Foundation.