Telescope 'hunt' aliens damaged after the storm

Arecibo astronomer in Puerto Rico was severely damaged after the super typhoon Maria reduced the ability to search for extraterrestrial life.

According to Space magazine, the world's largest radio telescope operating after struggling with the super typhoon Maria suffered serious damage.

Arecibo telescope.

During the storm sweep, researchers did not receive any signals from the telescope.

Professor Jim Breakall, Pennsylvania State University, said the storm caused the observatory to lose an astronomical pan 12 meters wide, the main pan severely damaged.

The 29-meter antenna helps focus, receive and transmit radio waves that have broken in half and fall about 150 meters down to the large pan underneath that causes the pan to puncture a large hole.

Experts say this damage will certainly have a significant effect on observation, realizing the task of finding extraterrestrial life in the future.

Arecibo telescope was built in 1963, with the diameter of the pan up to more than 350 meters, is an important device in the search for aliens used in the program to find extraterrestrial intelligence ( SETI).