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Construction of World's Largest Telescope Finally Underway in Chile
mpicpp (3454017) writes with this update about a long-awaited project, the European Extremely Large Telescope: The partial demolition of Cerro Armazones, a mountain in northern Chile's Antofagasta region, marked the start of constructing the world's largest and most powerful telescope, an instrument capable of capturing 14 times more light than existing telescopes. At 2:00 p.m. Thursday, the blasting of Cerro Armazones, 3,060 meters (11,800 feet) high, removed from the peak between 25 and 30 meters (80 and 100 feet) of its height in order to create a plain some 200 meters (655 feet) long, on which to mount the European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT, a project of the European Southern Observatory. On this site will be built a structure 60 meters (200 feet) high and 80 meters (260 feet) in diameter, with mirrors of 39.3 meters (129 feet) which in 10 years will begin to explore the origins of the universe. The telescope will shed light on the 'dark ages' of the universe, when the Milky Way was only 500,000 years old, and thanks to its enormous size it could also contribute to finding extraterrestrial life by detecting whether exoplanets have oxygen in their atmospheres.
First, clear the mountain with a Big Fucking Explosion. Then assemble the Huge Ass Mirrors.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
I watched video, rather un-exciting. Spectators were 12km away. The MC said the sound would take about a minute to reach viewing audience, but I never heard explosion.
"There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and
Based on how long most of these big telescope projects end up taking, I'd expect late 2020s for it to become usable. We'll see.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
question: " ...capturing 14 times more light than existing telescope" on Earth, or including in orbit?
Considering how it should be trivial to make a telescope that's by some magnitude bigger and more powerful than anything we could possibly send into orbit, I somehow fail to understand the question?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
As cool as it is to see this finally start construction, this won't be the worlds largest telescope when completed, it will be the largest one designed to work at optical/near-infrared wavelengths. The worlds largest single dish telescope is still the Green Bank Telescope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bank_Telescope), which at 100m is ~6x the size. But it's a radio telescope, and it's a lot easier to build large radio telescopes than large optical ones because the surface doesn't need to be as precise.
the difference is size, detecting the atmosphere of a planet is totally different from detecting single electrons. Please study some science. You would be well served.
> The telescope will shed light on the 'dark ages' of the universe,
No, actually the telescope will *collect* light from the dark ages of the universe. If it shed light it would be the world's biggest fucking flashlight.
If you want to be pedantic, it *will* shed light, from several lasers mounted on the sides of the telescope structure. Those create artificial stars in the upper atmosphere so that atmospheric distortion can be cancelled by the adaptive optics. But those are attachments, not the main telescope.
https://www.eso.org/public/arc...
The Extremely Large Telescope is a compromise - what they really wanted was the 100m-diameter Overwhelmingly Large Telescope.
Their naming committees are either entirely humourless or gloriously taking the piss.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
They could have called it a "Delightfully Overwhelming Large Telescope" if they put half a heart into it. And why stop at Very Large, it could be a "Breathtakingly Large Telescope."
God spoke to me
Can we use the Extremely Large Telescope to obseve the Huge Large Quasar Group?
Not As Large As Your Mom But Still Large Telescope.
I understand the question perfectly. Is this better than a space based telescope? It's valid question.
No, you cannot image something smaller than the wavelength of the light you are using. They use spectrography to figure out what composition of molecules emitted the light.
They've opposed this for years because their kind doesn't believe that space exists. They consider telescopes an insult to their xian religion.
... are the best in the world for star-gazing. Chile Chill video showing the Chilean night sky....
No you don't understand the question. The question was whether it will capture 14 times more light than an existing space telescope. It's a valid question, but it's easy to guess the right answer with the basic knowledge that launching things is hard and that the atmosphere is transparent to visible light.
Considering how it should be trivial to make a telescope that's by some magnitude bigger and more powerful than anything we could possibly send into orbit, I somehow fail to understand the question?
You don't understand the concept of light collection efficiency through the earths atmosphere, compared to, not through the earths atmosphere? you sound like a fucking twat.
couldn't they technically observe whether my brain has neurons...
I very much doubt they are going to observe any of those in your brain.
The Very Large Telescope (linked in TFS) has been in service for some years... the telescope under construction is the European Extremely Large Telescope.
I understand
I do not think you do.
Software and cheap imaging fixed that years ago. No need for 1960's metal tubes filled with kerosene burning out one end.
Luddite.
At an altitude of 10000 ft, where they are building the telescope, there's not a lot of atmosphere left, and because it's in a remote desert area, the atmosphere is usually very clear.
Wow. Just wow,
Is it a terrorist target yet?
You don't fix bad data with software. You just express how you're going to make due with what you have.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
I think it is political. When you need a name that doesn't favour any member of the ESO references to its size are the best option. I guess ESO 39.3 meter telescope would be about the only other option.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... There, what good is the news of people blasting a mountain top off without video of the actual deed?
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
it's negotiation tactics. now the choosers didn't choose the most expensive.
next up is of course proposing to build the humongous laughably large telescope and settling for the overwhelmingly large.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I believe after a certain point the naming convention wraps around into understatement: the next largest telescope after the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope will be the Pretty Big Telescope.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Coulda called it Big Fucking Telescope.
Actually, that's exactly what is being done.
A laser beam is sent through the atmosphere and its dispersion is calculated, then the telescope mirrors are realigned microscopically to compensate. Think of it as some kind of "telescope glasses". The results are incredible.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
So put on a tin foil cap to protect yourself from the big bad brain imaging satellite. I suggest making it cone shaped.
close to 20 kilometers (12 miles) upwind from Cerro Paranal, the mountain where the predecessor of the E-ELT is in operation.
FTFY.
Have gnu, will travel.
Or rather, we don't want them to find us. Because they most probably are milions of years ahead of us and they'll see us as animals, not as intelligent life.
no, I don't have a sig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_optical_reflecting_telescopes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_optical_telescopes_historically
geez, sorry I asked.
The 'OWL' was the first telescope in this series of names as far as I know. I think all the others since have been given 'OWL' like names.
It's a bit unfair to say the 'OWL' project was cancelled because it was really only a feasibility study, and back in the 1980's rather a bonkers one at that. When people started working with computer-controlled segmented mirrors, it because clear that you could make a huge mirror from almost flat segments of glass. So the next step was to see whether you could make a moving and pointing telescope the size of the Great Pyramid. Over they years that 'OWL' wasn't built, the design was improved and it became clear that it was practical to make telescopes between 20m and 100m. Much bigger than 100m, and you probably have to go into space, to avoid the problems of weight, and atmosphere.
One day they may build the 'OWL' on the Antarctica dome, and you will have the finest seeing of all earth-bound telescopes, ever, and there is no point building any others unless you want to look North. The 'ELT' is a nice compromise: it's in Chile and not down by the South Pole which can be as hard to get to as space, and it's bloody big but it leaves something for our kids to do. Yay.
Why're you running from simple questions troll? http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
Why're you running from simple questions troll? http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
+1, Interesting.
(Thanks!)
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
your intelligence is right up there with the coal mining industry. will you also tell us there will be no environmental impact?