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Giant Mexican Telescope Launched
SilentOneNCW writes "A new telescope has been unveiled in Mexico by President Vicente Fox. The Large Millimeter Telescope will be used to pick up electromagnetic radiation known as millimetre waves emitted 13 billion years ago, when the first stars burst into existence, astrophysicists say. The $128M telescope is a joint project between Mexico and the US. With an antenna diameter of 164 feet, the LMT dwarfs existing millimetre-wave telescopes and should be able to pick up signals from the faintest objects in outer space."
If they are trying to impress people with its size, you'd think they'd come up with a better name than "The Large Millimeter Telescope".
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
What's the difference between 'vanguard' and 'forefront' with regard to radio-telescopy?
How long has this volcano been 'extinct' for?
WANRING: This warning is misspelt.
The Telescope will break open on reentry and spill out tonnes of delicious CANDY!
They unveiled that monster? They must have lots of cloth if they were able to veil something of that size.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Oh, so they plan to use that old extinct volcano comes to life and launches the telescope propulsion technique. Isn't that kind of optimitistic?
This is a rather exciting endeavour for those with interest in anything "out there" as equipment of this magnitude is not readily available. Digging into the "building blocks" of inner and outer space, and everything in between, will no doubt yield some interesting surprises, as Hubble continues to do.
WANRING: This warning is misspelt.
I hadn't heard of this Mexican effort before, but I've read a bit about the Atacama Large Millimeter Array being built in Chile. Is this a duplicative effort, or is ALMA supposed to be even more capable?
How do you say "We get signal!!!" in Spanish?
Damn. Here I've been using the regular-sized ones all this time...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I don't think the telescope was "launched"; the pic in the article suggests it's a big radio disk attached firmly to the ground.
Hmm... What could the Mexicans need the world's biggest mirror for...
Well God bless her and all who sail in her....
Travelling forward in time at a rate of 1 second per second.
Are you this guy?
"Gran Teslescopio Milimétrico" is his official name in Spanish. You can lern more about it in the official site (english version)
16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
Are they doing the same thing that George Smoot did when he won the Nobel Prize?
He found/mapped out Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, the radiation left over from the expansion and cooling of the universe right after the big bang. It sounds as though the Mexican telescope is doing the same thing...
The NSF has sunk nearly all their money into the ALMA array in Chile, and we get the scraps. That's unfortunate because they'll never let students near the ALMA array, since it will cost gazillions of dollars per hour to operate. So it's nice to see another single-dish millimeter wave scope opening.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
I'm sure "Large Millimeter Telescope" is just the crude English translation of a Spanish term meaning "The Anaconda of Astronomy."
With an antenna diameter of 164 feet, the LMT dwarfs existing millimetre-wave telescopes and should be able to pick up signals from the faintest objects in outer space.See, it doesn't see anything fainter! Point out something this can't see! Can't? Well then, it must see the faintest objects now, right?
They are probably using it this very second to scan for weaknesses in the American Over-Reactive Border Fence System.
load "$",8,1
The reason it wasn't launched yet is because they are still trying to get a visa or work-permit to the telescope.
ilex paraguariensis for all
Houston, the burrito has landed!
Tenemos señal !!
16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
Poverty, crime, and corruption are major problems over there and they are wasting money on a space program? I know if I was running the country and people were trying to leave for the US en masse I would probably focus my attention on domestic issues instead of launching a space program which would be decades behind the most established programs in the US and Russia.
You've got your stereotypes all mixed up, man. Let me lay it out for you:
Black people and White trash work in fast food.
Hispanics work in agriculture and sometimes construction.
Come on man, you gotta do your homework to be a proper racist.
The Large Millimeter Telescopewill
Someone isn't using the spellcheck in FF2..
Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
Mexico has much better things they could do with the money. Instead of spending all of that on a telescope program (Which will undoubtedly need a LOT more money for upkeep, operation and maintenance), they should spend it trying to get their people out of poverty. Maybe then they'll stop crossing the border illegally. And as for the US support of the program (The article said it was a joint effort), we should NOT be helping them. Mexicos leadership doesn't give a damn about all of the illegal immigrants coming over here. Until they try to put a stop to it, we shouldn't give them squat. Especially when it's something as trivial as a telescope.
I, for one, welcome our new milimeter sized telescoping mexican overlords.
Mucho Grande/Taco Bell/bathroom.. really, now, this is offensive and racist. I am shocked to see how it has been promoted.
All their women are ugly and eat beans
Just the ones we show to tourists, the good ones we keep for ourselves. Same for the tequila.
1.1 millimeters?
This $128M project is a substantial step up from the $200 MASA was paid to send Jambu to the moon.
I can say that the women of the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja Califorinia Sur are among the most beautiful in the world. Oh, to be a young man in Baja again.
Now I know what those motherfuckers are buying with all the jobs they're stealing!
I was surprised to find less than 5 interesting and well-modded comments in this discussion. Most of you just made fun of the misleading headline, the rest made racist comments or criticized the Mexican government for spending funds in scientific research, instead of spening it in "more important things".
While I do agree that there are a lot of problems in Mexico, I also understand that scientific research is key for a country's development. As someone else already pointed out, skilled Mexicans will work at this telscope facilites, further exapnding knowledge and research, supporting the development of even more Mexican scientists.
Also of mention, should you'd read the fscking article, you'd realize it's not a space telescope, but rather a ground-based one.
And, what's with the racist comments? So it's not ok to make ethnic remarks about "african-americans", "native-americans" or "the latino population in the US", but it's perfectly fine to poke at your Mexican neighbors? What a bunch of hypocrats.
If you ever wondered why Americans are considered ignorant and arrogant abroad, just read this thread.
That should go nicely with all of those 'Mexican Space Shuttles' (construction worker slang for porta-potties)
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
"Barlows? We ain't got no Barlows. We don't need no Barlows. I don't have to show you any stinking Barlows."
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Sorry, I'm not an american (nor a racist) so, I don't know much details about what different people do in US. I was just trying to make a joke w/ the fact that people going from LAC (not just Mexico) to USA isn't allowed in most cases, but everything else is permitted :-)
ilex paraguariensis for all
lol its not over-reactive, just stay in your own goddamned country, unless you do it legally. none of this fake id crap and coming in the back of vans and all this stupid crap ive seen.
as to the telescope, they should have used that on their people and not on the telescope.
Parrots are not native to geographies where fjords are to be found, and so are unlikely to pine for them.
Frogs lack both the intelligence and the proper vocal cords to form human speech, much less to sing "Hello my lady, hello my darling..."
When attempting to inform another person of an easily misunderstood name, in a real conversation one would rapidly devise unambiguous statements such as "The name of the player on first base is spelled H - U." to avoid any confusion.
If anyone has any additional jokes that they would like Mr. Anonymous Coward or me to suck all the life out of, just let us know.
I! Mojo Jojo! shall avenge this intrusion into my lair! Mojo Jojo will DESTROY YOU!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Drill baby drill - on Mars
It's good to see the U.S. and Mexico working together. With this, we can finally find the planet our southern friends came from.
I've just been scrolling through some of the comments on this thread. Absolutely disgusting. Interesting to see how racism is alive and well, even among people that are supposedly better educated. Aside from the standard ignorance ("hi-tech industry should be kept out of impoverished countries, the people can only get out of poverty by working in low-skilled, low-paid agriculture and manufacturing") I am struck by the willingness of some people to openly make fun of the concept of people with a slightly different appearance making progress in areas that usually involve good aryans and the master race. But don't let me wake you out of your trance. If 9/11 wasn't enough to wake you up to life outside the USA then maybe you'll sit up and take notice when places like Ireland, India, and (shock horror) Mexico overtake you in science and leave you looking like the British of today - i.e. imperial has-beens who left it too late to ditch the arrogant, superior, condescending attitude.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Darn, if there is a place in Mexico with the MOST beautiful women (and the concentration of them) is Culiacan Sinaloa just take a look at this pictures (no need español).
Oh and about the telescope, in one side it is nince that they are doing something for science (hey I am in UK because of a scolarship I won from the Mexican government) but on the other side, I agree with the people that say that the money could be used for better things
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Man you obviously don't live in a major city. In New York City many of the cooks and buss boys in restaurants are Mexicans. Many day labors for construction work though.
Talk about off-topic.
/sheep modded you up. WTF?
And the
Those poor Gringos. All their women make porn and use drugs!
There's two submillimetre telescopes on Mauna Kea - the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (where I did my PhD observing) and the James Clarke Maxwell Telescope.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
some of those women are from the republic of panama.... so most of them should be stolen beautys from others country... :D
todas las mexicanas son gordas, chaparras, con bigotes y comen frijoles... eso dijo tziano ferro..
is it shaped like a cigar?
I thought we had enough pictures of the Sombrero Galaxy by now ?
All their women make porn and use drugs. Best of all we export the coca that fucks their brains!
that launch was...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
I was just going to ignore all this stuff until I read through a couple of these shocked and horrified posts. But glancing through the garbage that resides at 0 and below, I really don't find anything particularly unusual or frankly shocking for that level. You know what -1 posts are like on Slashdot and they're meeting expectations.
I had no idea that telescopes had nationality or ethnicity. I just sorta thought they were tools.
look like a giant burrito?
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
So who works in telescopes?
Obviously Mexicans. They're fine when they're in Mexico. It's only when they come over here to America that they become lazy freeloading squatters who steal all of our jobs, likely through some ancient Aztec black magic voodoo involving the brutal sacrifice of American children to their dark gods.
Hello tyrants, you all should strive for getting some dignity, this is the kind of arrogant attitude of superiority that rules every square mile of your territorial extension. Have fun while it lasts because in the near future chinamen will be raping your wives with their small penises and laughing at you and your sons and daughters xD. I guess it is not too late for changing your reputation by showing some respect to the other nations and pretend to be part of this world (if opposed, refer to the beginning of this paragraph). BTW why isn't this thread moderated?
40% of Mexicans live in poverty (Mexican poverty, which is something most people in developped countries can't some times even imagine).
Although it is always good news that a 3rd world country invests in science and technology (instead of nuclear bombs or nuclear technology with military intents) that should not stop us to describe the economic and social situation on those countries accurately.
Just google about Oaxaca to find out how "Newly Industrialized" we really are....
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
... whose government tells them where they can and can't go, Mexican citizens have freedom of movement and can leave the country freely.
So the Mexican government has no reason whatsoever to stop people going abroad if so they wish.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
It is bad enough that countries like Mexico did not invest on science for decades to suggest they should keep doing so.
THe MExican people is better server by raising the standards of living and by investing in science.
Science and technology adds expertise needed to attract jobs with high added value. THere is no better investment in order to help the population to stand on their own feet (we have many Engineers and technicians that are unemployed or driving taxis to survive, projects like thes allows them to remain current and pehapd gain the skill to get well paid jobs or start companies in new fields).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Lets stop building centers of technological excellence in Mexico so all those technicians and Engineers are unemployed.
You would be surprised of how many of those illegal immigrants that so many US people dislike so much (in spite of keeping entire US industries up and running) are unemployed technicians and even Engineers (I should know, my uncle, with a degree in Engineering, was an illegal worker for a while, later on he became the most respected Engineer in a car manufacturing plant in Mexico, where he is still fondly remembered).
What many of you folks in the US really want is to keep paying pennies for the work we do in your country, provide no social services for us and in top of that to deny us opportunities to access to high tech jobs (many of you did not and still don't like NAFTA in spite of how one sided on your favour it is in nature ).
And then you say we should do more on our own. THe problem is that every time we try you meddle with our affirs one way or another (I was going to go on overdrive here, better not).
It is high time that if you really believe all that bullshit about freedom, capitalism and the pursuit of happiness that you reach a comprehensive agreement to regulate migration between both countries in a realistic manner. You will have Mexcians and Latinos in the US. Many of us. Get used to it, adapt to it and deal with it. You can deal with it taking into account the economical realities of the world or you can build bullshit walls that the only think they achieve is to please xenophobes and to waste monumental ammounts of money.
Instead of xenophobic wasteful projects like the racist wall you are intending to build, proejcts like this and manny others is what is needed.
Mutual cooperation (you need our cheap labour, we need your capital and technology) is the only way forward, and that will happen no matter what, because Mexicans and Latinos will not stop going to the US.
The US will one day, for better or worst, be a Latino country, the only thing you can control is that the path enriches everybody or if it is full of pain and abuse.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Spanish-Indian-Black-French.
Mix, stirr... wow!
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
10.70 an hour? Even if it were in pesos (would mean ~US$1 an hour), it would be an extremely good deal. The minimum wage is about US$4 a day - working, of course, 8 hours. I have a quite decent income, and make about US$1500 a month - Of course, our living expenses are also way below yours :)