from the article
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is currently out of commission after a thick support cable fell onto the dish, creating a large gash. It’s yet another setback for the beloved science facility, which hasn’t fully recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Maria.
At around 2:45 a.m. local time on Monday August 10, a three-inch thick auxiliary cable fell onto the observatory’s main reflector dish, creating a 100-foot-long scar, reports UCF Today. The cable is used to support a metal platform above the observatory. All scientific work done at the Arecibo facility is on pause, pending repairs. The cause of the cable failure is not yet known, nor is cost or time required for the fixes.
Around a half-dozen panels on the Gregorian Dome were also damaged when the cable fell, as was a platform used to access the dome. The Gregorian Dome, which rests some 500 feet (152 meters) above the surface of the dish, houses a multi-beam receiver capable of scanning multiple points in the sky simultaneously.
Thank you for posting the correct excerpt. (Proudly posting without reading the articles since 1998.)