![]() "I have to inform you with my heart in my hand that the Arecibo Observatory collapsed." She looked to be in tears. Ada Monzon is a popular TV meteorologist. ![]() GREENFIELDBOYCE: News of its demise spread quickly. And that's certainly a big loss for the island. He says this telescope was something Puerto Rico could be proud of. But Ruperto, who's a student at the University of Puerto Rico, helped organize a campaign to save it. That's why the National Science Foundation, which owns the telescope, announced it would be decommissioned. GREENFIELDBOYCE: The telescope's aging structural cables had been snapping in recent months. And we knew that it was a matter of days. This morning, it came crashing 450 feet down, smashing onto the massive dish. Between them, suspended on cables, there used to be a 900-ton instrument platform, but no more. GREENFIELDBOYCE: He could see its three tall support towers standing above the trees. WILBERT RUPERTO: And I'm here in one of these houses overlooking the observatory. Filmmakers have used it as scenery for movies like "Contact" and "GoldenEye." When I reached Wilbert Ruperto (ph) on his cellphone, he was in the neighborhood next to the telescope. Scientists have used it to find planets outside our solar system and to search for alien life. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: The Arecibo radio telescope has a huge collecting dish, a thousand feet wide. As NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports, its sudden end is an emotional blow for many Puerto Ricans. For more than half a century, the enormous Arecibo telescope searched the skies from its spot in a lush forest of Puerto Rico.
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