Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Giant Mexican Telescope Launched

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the they're-watching-you dept.

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."

6 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Launched -- How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    The telescope is built on the 4,580m (15,026ft) summit of an extinct volcano called Sierra Negra - the fifth highest peak in Mexico


    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?
  2. Astronomically scientifically interesting by 0jjjjjjjjjj0 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually, it's much more interesting to look at the project's page than just read an article about it.

    Some highlights of the anticipated LMT research are outlined below:
    • * solar-system planetesimals & planets
    • * extra-solar protoplanetary-disks
    • * individual Galactic star-forming regions
    • * the Galactic nucleus
    • * local galaxies
    • * active galactic nuclei
    • * high-redshift dusty starburst galaxies
    • * clusters of galaxies and their large-scale distribution.

    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.
  3. I don't think the telescope was "launched"... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:Mexican scientists must be humble by moco · · Score: 2, Informative

    For starters, UNAM, the largest university in mexico has it's institute of astronomy here.

    There are lots of observatories around mexico, it seems they like astronomy because of all that prehispanic tradition. Anyway, i live in mexico and this telescope was big news last night. The name in spanish is "Gran Telescopio Milimetrico" which translates better (IMO) to "Great Milimetric Telescope".

    --
    moi
  5. Re:Astronomically scientifically interesting by NixieBunny · · Score: 5, Informative
    I work on a couple telescopes of this type in Arizona, the old NRAO 12 meter scope on Kitt Peak and the 10 meter submillimeter scope on Mt. Graham. See them here. It's true that there aren't many scopes of this type available. There are a couple in Europe and one on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

    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.
  6. Re:Hmmm.... by wakaramon · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mexico paid 70% of the 120 million USD of the project. You may want to learn that 12% of US citizens live under poverty line... so following your argumente the US should solve that problem instead of keeping "pet projects" like Irak...