Read on Twitter
I cried over a structure.
A unplanned twitter thread to give myself some relief from the pain. #ObservatorioDeArecibo RIP Arecibo
A unplanned twitter thread to give myself some relief from the pain. #ObservatorioDeArecibo RIP Arecibo
I live less than half an hour away from the observatory and I was so stupidly content about it, always telling myself that "I'll go later" because of how close it was to me.
As the news of its decommission hit I found myself thinking more and more about it, I understood why it was being done and clearly with this latest tragedy it's even more clear it was the right choice.
But I still hoped someone would swoop in and save it at the last minute, that feels impossible at this point... I never got on board my the effort to reverse the decision because I understood the decision was done out of necessity but I secretly hope they'd be successful.
And I just wonder what now... What happens?
Without the telescope will we be able to get another WOW signal?
Without the telescope will we be able to send another Arecibo Message? More importantly if extra terrestrial live gets the message and responds, how will we receive that signal?
And I remember being in robotics competitions in the US and having a kid go crazy over me and my friends because we all lived in or around Arecibo and he wanted all the details of seeing the telescope up close...
I'm certain there's hundreds of kids just like him, aspiring astronomers who one day hope to use the telescope for their or research.
There's professors I've had in college, multiple ones, who don't know spanish and barely know english who were here in Puerto Rico solely because the observatory was vital to their research. Being a professor was just their side job.
I'm not being as emotional as I expected to be because I really can't put my emotions into words. It feels like getting news of a close relatives passing while outside the country, it feels like my brain is shutting itself from reality.
It's was yet another thing that filled me with pride in my country that has been taken away from us here in Puerto Rico.
I expect people to leave in search of better jobs and better lives, I expect hurricanes and storms to cause damage that will likely never be fixed, I expect tax dollars to be lost to corruption... But I never expected this, I never expected to lose the observatory.
