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New Mexico residents push to save nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory as demolition nears (sourcenm.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/newmexico@lemmy.world
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A coalition of New Mexico residents are pushing to save the nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains near Alamogordo, after the National Science Foundation announced its plans to demolish the site.

The U.S. Air Force in 1947 announced it would fund a solar observatory dedicated to researching solar flares and sunspots — within eyesight of the White Sands Missile Range. The National Science Foundation took over operations in the mid-1970s and a consortium including New Mexico State University has overseen operations of the visitor’s center and Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope since 2017.

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[–] [S] 1 point 4 months ago

In January, though, the National Science Foundation announced that the liquid mercury had spilled into the building housing the telescope. It immediately closed the campus off to the public and kept it that way. By February, the NSF announced plans to demolish the site and return the land to the stewardship of the U.S. Forest Service.

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