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."

Comments

Mexican scientists must be humble

[Salvance]

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".

Re:Mexican scientists must be humble

[__aaclcg7560]

The Mucho Grande Telescope? Sounds like something you get at Taco Bell, either off the menu or in the restroom.

Re:Mexican scientists must be humble

[Simon Garlick]

The reality that an underdeveloped country like Mexico is placing such a high importance on scientific research while the the United States of Jesusland lobotomizes itself really burns, doesn't it? A Third World country is trying to work out how the Universe works while the USA is teaching its children that everything was created by an invisible superhero who lives in the sky.

But don't let me interrupt you. Please continue making jokes about Taco Bell.

Re:Mexican scientists must be humble

[G3CK0]

While I understand the frustration at the idiot comments that have been posted so far, I think you are way off base in regards to the scientific research and education that goes on in the US. If you were too lazy to read the article before responding, the summary even states that the US has supplied funding for this project.

While it is amazing that Mexico has built a new LMT, I feel obligated to remind you of the multiple telescopes the US operates such as Gemini, KECK, NASA IRTF, CSO, SMA, NRAO. These are but a few off the top of my head.

Huge Cloth

[camperdave]

They unveiled that monster? They must have lots of cloth if they were able to veil something of that size.

Astronomically scientifically interesting

[0jjjjjjjjjj0]

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.

Large millimeters?

[jpellino]

Damn. Here I've been using the regular-sized ones all this time...

Re:Bonus if the orbit decays...

[Hijacked Public]

It isn't in orbit and never will be unless the volcano it is bolted to erupts.

Hmmm....

[pr0nbot]

Hmm... What could the Mexicans need the world's biggest mirror for...

Re:Astronomically scientifically interesting

[NixieBunny]

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.

Re:Those poor Mexicans

[gotem]

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.

Re:Don't they have bigger problems?

[wolenczak]

Poverty, crime, and corruption ??? You are talking about Louisiana right?

And you call yourselves 'geeks' ?

[ChibiOne]

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.

To summarize

[oliderid]

If you ever wondered why Americans are considered ignorant and arrogant abroad, just read this thread.