Petition Emerges to Save Radio Telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico - Newser

News last week that an iconic radio telescope that has gazed upon the cosmos for nearly six decades would be decommissioned and demolished has hit the scientific community hard, and now it's fighting to keep the astronomy landmark alive.

(A new high-res satellite photo commissioned by Nature from Planet Labs shows the damage from above.) After further inspection, additional issues were discovered, and the National Science Foundation decided to shut the telescope down for safety reasons.

"We urge emergency action to have the Army Corps of Engineers or another agency evaluate the telescope structure and search for a safe way to stabilize it," reads the petition to the White House, which had more than 28,000 signatures as of Friday.