Luckily, no lives were lost, and while some support buildings were destroyed (including the fire shed, ironically enough), the damage to the telescopes initially appears to be far less than it could have been, thanks to the efforts of the fire crews. (FYI, Amanda Bauer was doing superb work live-blogging news and images as they became available. Click here and here, for the day of the fire, and the day after as the state of the observatory became clear.).
However, as bad as this was, it wasn't the first time, nor was it the worst. Almost exactly 10 years earlier, Australia's Mt. Stromlo Observatory (shown below) was devastated by wildfires, as discussed in this excellent article, where Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt discusses how at least one of the telescopes threatened at Siding Springs was built as a replacement for one that was lost at Mt. Stromlo.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2013/01/14/fires-on-the-mountain-facing-the-inevitable/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CosmicVarianceBlog+%28Cosmic+Variance%29
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However, as bad as this was, it wasn't the first time, nor was it the worst. Almost exactly 10 years earlier, Australia's Mt. Stromlo Observatory (shown below) was devastated by wildfires, as discussed in this excellent article, where Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt discusses how at least one of the telescopes threatened at Siding Springs was built as a replacement for one that was lost at Mt. Stromlo.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2013/01/14/fires-on-the-mountain-facing-the-inevitable/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CosmicVarianceBlog+%28Cosmic+Variance%29
Εστάλη από το Windows Phone μου
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