Wednesday, January 27, 2021

REVEALED: Collapse of 'GoldenEye' Arecibo Observatory was likely caused by faulty cable snapping

Arecibo Observatory collapsed in December following cable failures
The observatory team launched investigations to find what caused the accident
A preliminary investigation found there may have been a manufacturing error
One of the auxiliary cables that snapped separated from the socket
The investigation believes the socket was not constructed properly
Engineers are removing the debris and analyzing pieces for more clues

PUBLISHED: 11:36 EST, 25 January 2021 | UPDATED: 14:36 EST, 25 January 2021

A preliminary investigation into why the famous alien-hunting Arecibo Observatory telescope collapsed in December has provided officials with clues to what caused the catastrophic event.

Forensic investigators were recently brought to the scene to examine the fallen giant, where they focused on the auxiliary and main cables that had snapped.

The teams found a manufacturing error with the auxiliary cables, in which the socketing procedure was not done properly and may have led to the degradation of the structu

One of the supporting cables had slipped out of its socket in August 2020 and before officials could repair it, a second cable snapped three months later – and then the telescope came tumbling down in December.

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A preliminary investigation into why the famous alien-hunting Arecibo Observatory telescope collapsed in December has provided officials with clues to what caused the catastrophic event

Arecibo, which was featured in the 1995 James Bond film Goldeneye, collapsed December 1, 2020 when a cable holding up a 900-ton receiver platform snapped around 8am local time that morning and sent the massive structure hurling onto the reflector dish more than 400 feet below.

Arecibo Observatory suffered another failure in August when an auxiliary cable broke that resulted in a 100-foot gash on the 1,000-foot-wide dish and damaged the receiver platform

Then a main cable failed in early November that sealed the iconic telescope's fate - officials were set to shut it down after 57 years of service.

Ramon Lugo, director of the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida and manager of Arecibo, said he speculated the telescope was due to collapse a few days before the event took place.

The teams found a manufacturing error with the auxiliary cables, in which the socketing procedure was not done properly and may have led to the degradation of the structure. One of the supporting cables had slipped out of its socket in August 2020 (pictured)

Arecibo collapsed December 1 (pictured) when a cable holding up a 900-ton receiver platform snapped around 8am local time that morning and sent the massive structure hurling onto the reflector dish more than 400 feet below

The observatory team is now working to uncover specific details to what led to the collapse, as first reported on by Space.com.

Francisco Cordova, observatory director, said during a panel discussion: 'The site cleanup and the debris removal really is ongoing.'

'In general, I think that is moving in the right direction.'

Two forensic investigations are evaluating the debris, with one focusing on the auxiliary cables and the other on the main cables.

The auxiliary cables, 12 in total, where added to the telescope's structure in the 1990s when the hanging dome was constructed.

One of these was also the first to fail in August when it slipped from the socket that connected it to one of the three surrounding support towers.

'Preliminary investigation has revealed that there was a manufacturing error in those cables — in particular, the socketing procedure wasn't done appropriately, and that led to advanced degradation of that particular structural element,' Cordova said.

Two forensic investigations are evaluating the debris, with one focusing on the auxiliary cables and the other on the main cables. The auxiliary cables, 12 in total, where added to the telescope's structure in the 1990s when the hanging dome was constructed

The other investigation is looking into the main cables, which were part of the telescope's early 1960s construction, and one had failed in November. Engineers say that that specific cable was holding only 60 percent of the weight it should have been able to withstand

'But the final forensics investigation is still to be completed.'

The other investigation is looking into the main cables, which were part of the telescope's early 1960s construction, and one had failed in November.

Engineers say that that specific cable was holding only 60 percent of the weight it should have been able to withstand and are separating debris that could be used in this investigation, as well as the one into the auxiliary cables.

'Certainly, there's typically not a single item that contributed but a multitude of items that contributed to the particular failure,' Cordova said.

Arecibo Observatory is famous for detecting whirling pulsars, capturing geological features of Mars and helping astronomers discover the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Pictured is the telescope in 2016

Although the investigations are looking at Arecibo's structure, Cordova is aware that natural weather events may have played a role.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico and tore pieces off from the telescope.

And just last year, more than 10,000 earthquakes hit the area.

'Basically, we were shaking the entire time; that certainly could have been a factor,' Cordova said. 'That's being still analyzed by the engineering teams.'

Arecibo Observatory is famous for detecting whirling pulsars, capturing geological features of Mars and helping astronomers discover the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, along with making an appearance in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.

The giant telescope was also used in programs that search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) because its location provided scientists access to one-third of the cosmos.

Because Arecibo has played a key role in major space discoveries, Puerto Rico's government is also working to restore it.

Last month, Governor Wanda Vázquez signed an executive order approving $8 million to help rebuild the renowned telescope.

The order states reconstructing Arecibo is 'a matter of public policy,' along with declaring the observatory site a historic zone.

The $8 million is set to be used for removing and disposing of the debris and the design of the new telescope.

Moment huge James Bond observatory collapses in Puerto Rico

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ARECIBO OBSERVATORY HISTORY

1963: Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory Commissioned for service on November 1 for $9.7 million.

1965: One of its first accomplishments was establishing the rotation rate of Mercury, which turned out to be 59 days rather than the previously estimated 88 days.

1968: Sporadic radio pulses from the direction of the Crab Nebula supernova remnant found at Green Bank were shown by Arecibo to come from a 33-ms period pulsar situated at the center of the nebula.

1974: New high precision surface reflector installed, planetary radar transmitter installed.

1974: The first pulsar in a binary system was discovered, leading to important confirmation of Einstein's theory of general relativity and a Nobel Prize 1993 for astronomers Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor.

1974: On 16 November, the 'Arecibo message' was broadcast into space toward the globular star cluster M13 25,000 light years away.

The message's main purpose was to demonstrate the capabilities of newly installed equipment in the upgraded radio telescope and was an attempt to contact extraterrestrial intelligence.

1979: A large, anomalous travelling ionospheric disturbance (that is, an upper atmosphere wave) moving southeast to northwest was detected in the early morning hours - something researchers had never before witnessed. Data helped define the probable cause as an air nuclear blast over the Indian Ocean.

1981: First radar maps of the geologic surface of Venus are produced.

1982: The discovery of strong 'megamaser' emission from the hydroxyl (OH) molecule in the starburst galaxy Arp 220 (IC 4553).

1982: The discovery of millisecond pulsars, which rotate several hundred times per second. This demonstrated the existence of two classes of pulsars - the millisecond pulsars and the slower-rotating pulsars, which rotate about once per second.

1989: The first measurement of hydrogen escape flux from Earth is presented, based on velocity distribution measurements of the hydrogen airglow emission in the upper atmosphere.

Early 90s: The first planets outside the solar system were discovered around Pulsar B1257+12, a rapidly rotating pulsar with three Earth-like planets in orbit.

1992: In October, ice is discovered in shadowed craters at Mercury's north pole. Later observations show ice in south pole craters as well.

1996: A layer of helium ions is shown to be a common, but previously unrecognised feature in the low-latitude ionosphere near 600 km.

1998: Arecibo Observatory 'found' the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft on July 28, after it lost communications with European Space Agency and NASA,. by bouncing a radar signal off the satellite. SOHO's mission was resumed and continues to produce data today.

May 2000: Radar Observations of Asteroid 216 Kleopatra reveal a 'dog bone' shaped metal-rich object.

September 2000: Discovery that 2000 DP107 was the first near-Earth asteroid identified by radar as a binary system. The primary is roughly spherical with a diameter of a half mile and the smaller secondary, which orbits it in 1.8 days, is about 1000 feet.

2003: Evidence for hydrocarbon lakes on the Saturn satellite Titan is established using the Observatory planetary radar.

April 2004: Installation of the Arecibo L-band Feed Array, enabling a wide variety of astronomical surveys including discovering pulsars, mapping the gas in our Galaxy, and searches for other galaxies.

2005-2012: Radar imaging of Mars reveals lava flows and near-surface geologic features not seen in visible images. This provides new insights into Mars surface geology.

2006: Search for water ice in the permanent shadow of the lunar Shackleton Crater disputes evidence for water ice on the lunar surface.

October 2006: Radar images of the south pole of the moon reveal no evidence for thick deposits of ice.

November 2006: Radar images of binary asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4 in May 2001 and again in June 2002 reveal exotic physical and dynamical properties which may be common among near-Earth binaries.

March 2007: Radar images of Mercury reveal features to be studied further by the Messenger spacecraft over the next several years.

2007: The near-Earth asteroid 2005 PH5 was observed to be increasing in spin rate, due to non-uniform absorption and emission of solar radiation.

2007: Previously undetected radio lines of the molecule hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and the presence of the molecule methanimine (CH2NH), were recently discovered in the distant 'starburst galaxy' Arp 220.

February 2008: Discovery of the first triple asteroid system among the near-Earth asteroids. The asteroid, 2001 SN263, is about 1.5 miles in diameter, with two moons orbiting it.

2008–2012: Observations discover a radio outburst in the nearby galaxy NGC 660, ten times brighter than a radio supernova.

2011: Observations of brown dwarfs find the coldest star to show radio emission.

November 2011: Radar imaging of near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55, which made a very close flyby. This dark, spheroidal asteroid was found to be about 1,148 feet in diameter.

2012: An ion-neutral chemistry model is developed to successfully describe thin layers of neutral metal atoms at above 62 miles altitudes.

More info: National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center

Preliminary investigation offers possible cause of Arecibo Observatory telescope collapse

An image of Arecibo Observatory's iconic radio telescope before damage that began in August 2020; the curved azimuth arm and the dome suspended from it are both visible.

An ongoing investigation of the December collapse of the iconic radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico offers early evidence that a manufacturing issue may have contributed to the failure.

The telescope's massive science platform, which weighed in at 900 tons, was suspended above the vast radio dish by three dozen supporting cables. But in August 2020, one of those cables slipped out of its socket; before the failure could be repaired, a second cable snapped outright in November. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which owns the site, determined that the platform was too unstable to safely repair and decided to decommission the instrument. Before that could happen, the telescope collapsed on its own on Dec. 1.

Engineers have been investigating the cables since August, and crews have been cleaning up the debris and monitoring environmental concerns since the collapse,observatory director Francisco Cordova said during a panel discussion held on Jan. 21. "The site cleanup and the debris removal really is ongoing," Cordova told the panel, which is focused on small solar system objects like asteroids in order to inform the National Academies committee that's putting together the document that will shape planetary science priorities for the next decade. "In general, I think that is moving in the right direction."

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Cordova noted that the telescope's azimuth arm, which helped steer its instruments, and the hanging dome suspended from it that held antennas and the facility's radar transmitter, have already been removed from the site. Environmental engineers have also collected two types of potentially hazardous materials that were used on the platform, he said.

The next priority is to clear out remaining platform debris; to reach that material, work crews have deconstructed part of the massive Arecibo reflector dish, which measures 1,000 feet (305 meters) across. The observatory team is also evaluating how much of the dish itself can be rescued, Cordova said.

"There's still a lot of discussions as to how much of the primary reflector can be saved and how do we go about that," Cordova said. "Our focus right now is the safe removal of the platform structure, and then we'll look at it from there."

Simultaneously, two forensic investigations are evaluating what caused the telescope's collapse. One investigation focuses on the so-called auxiliary cables. These 12 cables were added in the 1990s, when the observatory installed the massive hanging dome that distinguishes the telescope's appearance in the movie "Contact" from its previous cameo in James Bond's "GoldenEye." The first cable to fail was one of these auxiliary cables, which slipped out of its socket where it connected to one of the three supporting towers surrounding the dish.

"Preliminary investigation has revealed that there was a manufacturing error in those cables — in particular, the socketing procedure wasn't done appropriately, and that led to advanced degradation of that particular structural element," Cordova said. "But the final forensics investigation is still to be completed."

A second forensic investigation focuses on the main cables, which are original to the telescope's construction in the early 1960s. It was one of these main cables that snapped in November, despite engineers' estimates that it was only carrying about 60% of the weight it should have been able to withstand.

As they work, site engineers are separating debris that could be relevant to the two forensic examinations. In addition, Cordova said that personnel are evaluating debris being removed for potential historic importance so that items can be saved.

Both the clean-up and investigation processes are ongoing, Cordova emphasized; in addition, the NSF is working separately on understanding the collapse and evaluating the site's future, including for a report that Congress has requested by late February.

And the answer may never be crystal clear. "Certainly, there's typically not a single item that contributed but a multitude of items that contributed to the particular failure," Cordova said. In addition to the facility's age, the past few years have been hard on Puerto Rico. In 2017, Hurricane Maria battered the island, and over the course of 2020, it experienced more than 10,000 earthquakes.

"Basically, we were shaking the entire time; that certainly could have been a factor," Cordova said. "That's being still analyzed by the engineering teams."

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Preliminary investigation offers possible cause of Arecibo Observatory telescope collapse | Space

CHESS

Remembering Eva Moser
by André Schulz

1/25/2021 – About two years ago, Austrian Woman Grand Master Eva Moser passed away. Michael Ehn, Kurt Jungwirth and Markus Ragger have now published a beautiful and impressively detailed book to honour the memory, life and chess career of this outstanding player.

Throughout its history, the Austrian chess community has seen a number of outstanding female players. Paula Kalmar-Wolf, Gisela Harum and Salome Reischer even had the chance to represent Austria at the Women's World Championships. However, the best Austrian-born female player was Eva Moser, and while she never got the opportunity to participate in a World Championship like her predecessors, she nonetheless represented her country admirably in numerous other international tournaments.

Born on July 26th, 1982 in the small town of Tamsweg and raised in Spittal an der Dau, Eva Moser began playing tournament chess at the age of ten. In secondary school, a class mate encouraged her to join the chess club. A mere few months later, she showed her exceptional talent at a school chess tournament in Klagenfurt, where she scored four wins and one draw as the youngest participant. Shortly afterwards, she joined a chess club in Spittel, which was quite unusual for a girl her age.

It did not take long for the Austrian Chess Federation to notice her outstanding talent. Eight times Eva Moser played in the Junior Championships in the age categories U10 to U14, winning eight times. In 1994, she participated in the World Junior Championship U14w in Szeged, finishing on place eight. In 1998, the European Junior Championship was held in Austria, and in spite of the stiff competition from a number of East European countries, she managed to finish second in the U16w, together with Ana Matnadze. In the following World Junior Championship, she finished fifth, an even more substantial achievement.

After finishing school, Eva Moser began studying business economics in Graz. She continued playing in tournaments, receiving professional training for brief periods of time. However, a lot of her chess knowledge came from reading books. Eva Moser finished her studies with a bachelor's degree and planned to pursue a career as a professional chess player. In 2005, chess was officially recognised as a sport in Austria and the Federation received access to public funding. Additionally, training of cadre and junior players was taken over by Zoltan Ribli, a development which benefitted Eva Moser.

From the very start, Eva Moser had understood that she had to measure her strength with male players to refine her technique. And so she did. In 2000, Eva Moser played her first Olympiad, as a member of the female national team. However, in 2004, she already represented Austria in the open section, playing first board for the Austrian team.

In 2006, she even won the overall Austrian National Championship. In 2003, she was the first Austrian woman to receive the title of Woman Grand Master (WGM). In the mid-2000s, Eva Moser was the best chess player in Austria. In the history of chess, a woman taking up the spot at the very top of her country's leaderboards has always been a rare sight, but Eva Moser managed to pull it off regardless.

Aside from playing in tournaments, Eva Moser also contributed articles to the Austrian Federation's official publication Schach Aktiv. She also held lectures and recorded a number of DVDs for ChessBase in Hamburg.

However, in 2015, Eva Moser suddenly retired from public chess life and no longer played tournaments. She had been diagnosed with leukemia. On March 31, 2019, Eva Moser passed away. She was only 37 years old.

For German-speaking readers, Michael Ehn, Kurt Jungwirth and Markus Ragger have now published a beautiful book which represents a touching tribute to this outstanding chess player: Eva Moser: Phantasie und Präzision auf dem Schachbrett (Eva Moser: Imagination and Precision on the Chess Board)

The book is divided into three parts and nine chapters. The first section, compiled by chess historian Michael Ehn, presents an overview of women's chess in Austria in the time before Eva Moser. Kurt Jungwirth's recollections of the Woman Grand Master are introduced by a lovingly assembled series of photographs showing an energetic and lively young girl growing up to be a world class player.

Over the years, Michael Ehn got to interwiew and talk with Eva Moser a number of times. The first time he spoke with her, she was 16 years old and had just won the silver medal at the European Junior Championship in 1998. Back then, Eva Moser told him about her role models, Paul Keres most of all, but Bobby Fischer, as well. The next opportunity for a conversation came after the U20 National Championship in 2002. 20 year old Eva Moser was planning to complete her studies and dreaming of a career in professional chess. However, she first wanted to reach an Elo rating of 2450.

After conquering the title of national champion in 2006 (men and women), she spoke with Michael Ehn about women's chess in Austria and the rest of the world. The way she saw it, the main reason behind the low number of women who manage to reach top positions in the world of chess is primarily a statistical one. According to her, there are just not enough female players to provide women's chess with a large base of strong players.

In 2014, Eva Moser triumphed at a Grand Masters' Tournament in Augsburg, winning against Petar Arnaudov in a spectacular game, which went down in chess history by featuring no less than five queens on the board.

Here's this unique game:
Arnaudov, G.Petar2442 0–1 Moser, Eva2436

IV. Internationales Senator-Max-Gutmann
Augsburg[,Eva] WGM

After the tournament, she told Michael Ehn about her newfound fascination with the style of
Richard Rapport and said that she did not believe Emanuel Lasker would stand a chance if he were to play a game against Magnus Carlsen nowadays, considering the amount of research that has been put into analysing every phase of the game since then.

In 2015, Eva Moser suddenly retired from tournament chess. In 2017, she also stopped contributing to Schach Aktiv. Eva Moser did not disclose any reason for her choice, but the Austrian chess community already had a suspicion that a serious illness might be the cause.

In January 2019, Michael Ehn spoke with a very sad Eva Moser one last time. "I am waiting," she told him.

The largest section of the book is dedicated to Eva Moser's chess legacy. She always favoured a lively and inventive style, quite frequently to great success. Markus Ragger, by now Austria's top-ranked player, annotated a selection of her games. There is a lot to be learned from him and Eva Moser. Comments about her opening variations are lengthy and exhaustive. Some of these variations were controversially discussed by Markus Ragger and Eva Moser on a number of occasions.

For instance, Moser thought that the retreat 3...Qd8 in the Scandinavian was a valid alternative to 3...Qa5 or 3...Qd6. Markus Ragger disagreed, but after looking at the lines again, he admits that he was probably wrong. Nowadays, 3...Qd8 is even played by players such as Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. The book also features a number of interesting games, with commentary based in part on Eva Moser's own notes.

The three authors have taken great care in assembling this beautiful and educational tribute to Eva Moser for German-speaking chess enthusiasts, and for this, they deserve all the recognition they can get. The book is a wonderful reminiscence of a great chess player and exceptional personality.

Eva Moser: Phantasie und Präzision am Schachbrett, Euro 38,-

Available for instance at Schach Niggemann...

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Wednesday, January 27, 2021

ARECIBO OBSERVATORY HISTORY

Preliminary investigation offers possible cause of Arecibo Observatory telescope collapse

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