News > Arecibo Observatory, second-largest in the world before and after its violent collapse

Arecibo Observatory, second-largest in the world before and after its violent collapse

Puerto Rico's celebrated Arecibo Observatory telescope which had even featured in a James Bond Film recently collapsed when its 900-ton receiver platform fell 450 feet below and onto the dish.

The observatory provided the first solid evidence for a neutron star and identified binary pulsars - a discovery that won the Physics Nobel in 1993. The telescope also helped make the first definitive detection of exoplanets and was used to listen for signals from intelligent life elsewhere in the world.