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Massive Construction Effort Begins For World's Largest Telescope
An anonymous reader writes with this selection from a press release issued by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: "Astronomers have begun to blast 3 million cubic feet of rock from a mountaintop in the Chilean Andes to make room for what will be the world's largest telescope when completed near the end of the decade. The telescope will be located at the Carnegie Institution's Las Campanas Observatory-one of the world's premier astronomical sites, known for its pristine conditions and clear, dark skies. Over the next few months, more than 70 controlled blasts will break up the rock while leaving a solid bedrock foundation for the telescope and its precision scientific instruments."
It seems whenever I read an article about something new and great discovered by a telescope, it mentions one of the orbiting sattelite type telescopes.
I can't remember when I last heard from a ground based one, except for routine things as continuously sweeping certain areas of the sky for anomalies, like a space surveillance camera.
Now I don't follow astronomy closely, so my viewpoint is based on what of it gets through to general science news sites.
But are huge investments in ground based telescopes like this still worth it compared to the alternative?
and only if, it's completed before the (larger) Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii, and the (larger still) European Extremely Large Telescope in Chile.
And even if it is completed before TMT and E-ELT, as soon as either of them is completed, it'll lose the title.
Did I mention both TMT and E-ELT are also targeting completion by the end of the decade? Yup.
So, good luck, GMT!
(And it goes without saying that non-optical radio telescopes, which use dishes instead of mirrors, have long been much larger. And that even submillimeter telescopes, which also use dishes, are working on staying larger, with the 25-meter CCAT planned for Chile later this decade.)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Astronomers have begun to blast 3 million cubic feet of rock
I think you'll find that the people blasting rock aren't astronomers...
I spent five minutes stealing cool sigs and all I got was this.
Besides knowing the depths of the space, they are also construction workers.
none
And here's me thinking they were going to blow stuff up at random in the hope a telescope would come out of it.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
There's the Very Large Optical Telescope, then there's the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope and the European Extremely Large Telescope. What's next? Ridiculously Large Telescope?
Obviously you have never done basic mathematics.... 8.5 x sqrt(7) is 22 (close enough). Why sqrt? because a telescope is (essentially) 2 dimensional - we care about the collecting area not the diameter (directly). A 20m telescope has 4 times the collecting area of a 10m telescope. This is really, really simple stuff.
So who is the idiot?
I have a question: how come no one has considered using a spot on Australia's Nullarbor Plain to build a giant telescope? Like Chile's Atacama Desert, the Nullarbor Plain has just about no rain and has effective freedom from light pollution, so it would be perfect for a large optical telescope installation.
Putting high precision instruments and a big piece of glass in a country that is very prone to earthquakes doesn't seem to be a good idea to me...
Extended and ongoing environmental impact studies are part and parcel of the final process of choosing a telescope site these days. We do try to be very careful to be considerate when building these facilities & work with teams of local environmental biologists. Also, in most cases nowadays, one of the preconditions for site use is that the site is returned to its original pristine state once the telescope in finally removed again.
There is, however, sometimes still local opposition. E.g. in Hawaii, this is usually on native cultural grounds, & nowadays, an effort is made to involve local native cultural leaders (in the early days, some culturally insensitive decisions were made, and both sides of the debate are aware of this).
In the case of Chile, such facilities are often welcomed, as they're much less damaging than the extensive mining operations already in existence there, but still provide good engineering and other technical jobs for Chileans. Plus, many Chileans are proud that their country can boast some of the finest such research facilities in the world.
(Full disclosure: I am both a professional observatory staff astronomer and a longtime member of Greenpeace).