Arecibo
I am hearing (rather late) that the Arecibo radio telescope has had a problem. The telescope is a giant dish that has instruments suspended at the focal point by some cables. The object suspended, has a mass of about 900 tonnes. It consisted of a gantry and a moveable ‘dome’ that can be steered to effectively change where the telescope looks.
One of the cables supporting this gantry came from its socket. Fortunately there is redundancy, and other cables are taking the load.
The cables are incredibly thick, as they have to support tonnes of mass, and as such the cables themselves have masses measured in the tonnes. The cable that came from the socket in the gantry smashed into the dish, which consists of a wire mesh, and damaged it.
This is an iconic instrument, I hope that it can be repaired.
Links
New Scientist Tweet (source of title image)