The Arecibo Telescope was the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world for over 50 years. Among its achievements in Astronomy it has been used to measure the spin of Mercury, map the surface of Venus, discover the first planets outside our Solar System, verify the existence of gravitational radiation and search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but it seems it was first built for military purposes.

While being decommissioned the structure had a total collapse early this month.

The collapse was captured on video:-