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."

Comments

Re:Hubble Telescope

[lightyear4]

The Hubble will be providing scientific insight long past its stamped expiration date. To quote from TFA:

The telescope will have four-and-one-half times the collecting area of any current optical telescope and the resolving power of a 25.6-meter (84-foot) diameter telescope - or 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

I don't know about you, but given the immense scientific value of the Hubble, investing in further pursuits like this seems a worthwhile and worthy investment.

Re:Hubble Telescope

[tempest69]

The Hubble is a great scope, but we need to go farther. The hubble has flaws of up to 1300 nanometers. Where the magellan has up to 15 nanometer flaws.

Just for some perspective, a silicon arom has a radius of 1.46 angstroms or .146 nanometers. giving it a .292 nanometers, so were looking at a mirror that is within 50 atoms of perfection.

Heck, the optic technology alone is enough to have real world impacts. So yea I think the investment is well worth it.

Storm

Re:Largest Telescope?

[luna69]

For those of you not familiar with why astronomers would place (frickin') lasers onto telescopes, there are multiple reasons.

The primary reason is to provide a "fake star" that can be monitored for distortion, which helps adaptive optics systems counteract atmospheric distortion in the final telescope image/data. In other words, it helps remove the "twinkle" caused by the atmosphere.

The laser at Apache Point, as well as at other locations (see previous message), is used to measure the distance to the moon (which is useful in, among other things, studies looking at the accuracy of general relativity).

The Apache Point laser is capable of measuring the distance to the moon to a millimeter using this device. (think about it: at a telescope, up on a mountain around 10,000 feet, there's probably more 'flex' in the mountain itself!).