Construction Begins On $1 Billion Telescope That Will Take Pictures 10 Times Sharper Than Hubble's (qz.com)

The $1 billion Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile is officially under construction with a scheduled date of operation in 2024. The telescope "will have an array of seven enormous mirrors totaling 80 feet in diameter, giving it 10 times the precision of the Hubble telescope," reports Quartz. "Among its advances is technology to help it correct for the distorting effect of Earth's atmosphere by using software to make hundreds of adjustments per second to its array of secondary mirrors." From the report: The project's architects, a consortium of universities and institutions in the U.S., Korea, and Australia, chose to build in Chile's Atacama desert for its clear, dry skies. Astronomers will use the Magellan Telescope to study the origins of elements and the birth of stars and galaxies, and to examine planets that have been identified as potentially harboring life. Mother Nature Network has an article highlighting nine of the largest new telescopes expected to begin operation in the next decade.

Comments

Re:South of the wall?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm from Chile so I guess I'm a "Brown American",

Guess what??? I NEVER asked for white leftist people to call me "brown" and I ***fucking hate*** that term. Please ***STOP*** calling me BROWN.

I didn't ask you to and you're not doing me ANY favor. I don't want to be called that. Capiche????

80 foot diameter!

[clickety6]

Wow, that's like a surface area of 8650 square cubits or something...