Habib Tabatabai, professor, civil & environmental engineering, was quoted in two national magazines about what ultimately caused the collapse of the famed Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico.
The giant telescope collapsed in December of 2020, after the platform suspended by cables above the telescope fell into the 1,000-foot-wide dish.
Tabatabai was a member of the committee appointed by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to examine previous investigations and issue a final report. That committee uncovered a question not previously addressed. “When we looked at the patterns of cable pullouts,” Tabatabai told Sky & Telescope, “there were several factors that said, ‘something else must be at work here.’”
The committee made its presentation to the U.S. Congress on Nov. 13.
Read about it in Astronomy and Sky & Telescope.