New Mexico residents push to save nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory as demolition nears

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.

https://sourcenm.com/2026/07/03/new-mexico-residents-push-to-save-nearly-80-year-old-sunspot-solar-observatory-as-demolition-nears/Open link View original on slrpnk.net

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grue

lemmy.world

Is this a facility-is-obsolete thing, or a Trump-science-denial thing?

nocturne reply

slrpnk.net

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.

Screen_Shatter

These people dont understand how dangerous mercury can be, let alone 270 gallons of it. Its not an easy thing to deal with, and its going to be incredibly expensive regardless what they do. Disposal is probably cheaper and simpler than decontaminating the facility to a level that is safe for the public.