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Giant Magellan Telescope Heads On Monday, April 20, 2009 - Janice Karin Home >> News >> Space   
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Nine research institutions on three continents have signed a founder's agreement to construct and operate the Giant Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in the Andes Mountains of Chile. The telescope will consist of seven co-mounted 8.4 meter mirror segments with the equivalent resolution of a single 24.5 meter primary mirror. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 and should be completed around 2019.
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The Giant Magellan Telescope will join two other Magellan telescopes currently located at the Las Campanas Observatory. The 6.5 meter “Walter Baade” telescope began operating in September, 2000 while its twin “Landon Clay” telescope began operating in September, 2002. The two telescopes are considered among the best natural imaging telescopes in the world. The Las Campanas site is an ideal location for large telescopes because it enjoys clear weather nearly year round and is very sparsely populated, thus being free from both atmospheric and light pollution. Designs for the Giant Magellan Telescope are still being finalized, although the basics are set and its mirrors are already in production under the auspices of Roger Angel and the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona. The first 20-ton mirror has been built but according to the scientists still needs to be polished and tested, what brings its estimated final completion date to early 2010.
TFOT has previously covered other telescopes, including the recently launched Kepler Telescope, which was designed to search for habitable planets in a nearby region of our galaxy. We have also brought to you initial reports from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or “GLAST”), and covered the High-Resolution Soft X-Ray Spectrometer (SXS), which was designed for Japan's NeXT telescope. You are also welcome to read our articles on the construction of the French Antares underwater Neutrino Telescope, and the construction of one of the largest ever cameras to detect dark energy. Read more about the founder's agreement in this Giant Magellan Telescope Organization press release. More information on the telescope itself can be found at the Giant Magellan Telescope project site, while information on Las Campanas is available on the official website of Las Campanas Observatory. |
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I love this post. I took a Biology class last semester and the more I siteudd science the more I was in wonder of how God fashioned everything from our planet to humans and plants. It's such a grand design and I don't know how can anyone think it is an "accident." I think the late, great Rich Mullins summed it up best in his song, "The Color Green." "Be praised for all your tenderness, by these works of Your hands. Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land. Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made, Blue for the skies and the color green, that fill these fields with praise!" |
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