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World's Largest Telescope Begins Production
JohnnyNapalm writes "The Aggie Daily News is reporting today that the first mirrors have been cast for the world's largest telescope. The result of cooperation from some of the foremost institutions in education and science in the nation, the Giant Magellan Telescope stands to operate at a resolution 10 times larger than the Hubble. The project, set to be constructed in Chile, is slated for completion in 2016."
Am I alone in feeling that we haven't even used hubble to the fullest extent of its abilities? Not sure why this is a priority right now.
I had the wonderful experience of being an undergraduate in astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, where a grant in adaptive optics was paving the way for ground-based telescopes. By shining a laser straight where the telescope is pointed, aberrations and distortions from the atmosphere can be measured and exactly countered by the telescope, effectively cancelling atmospheric effects to a remarkable degree. Check out http://cfao.ucolick.org./ The main telescope was outside of San Jose, CA, which might seem a strange location for a telescope due to its proximity to a large city. But since all of the streetlamps in San Jose are sodium (whose spectral properties are well known and simple), those features can be subtracted from any measured spectra and in conjunction with adaptive optics, the telescope outside northern california's largest city produces world-class astronomy. This telescope being built should be pretty neat. I wonder how they will deal with gravitational aberrations. Plus scientists won't ever need to face the threat of government letting their instrument "deorbit" while still producing good data.