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posted by n1 on Monday May 29 2017, @08:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the bigger-means-better dept.

After several years of planning and no shortage of financial anxiety, construction has officially started on the Extremely Large Telescope. Contractors are now building the main structure and dome of the Chile-based observer ahead of its initial service in 2024. That's a long time to wait, but this is no mean feat. With a 43-yard aperture, this promises to be the world's largest optical telescope for sometime, even compared to future or in-limbo projects like the Thirty Meter Telescope. Those gigantic dimensions will help it capture far more light, giving astronomers the chance to spot particularly distant galaxies, find small planets and capture more details of larger planets.

The ELT's full capabilities won't come until sometime after 2024, when the ESO starts a second construction phase. It could easily be another few years after that before the telescope lives up to its expectations.

Source: Engadget


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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 30 2017, @12:34AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @12:34AM (#517394) Journal

    Or they want to be sure that it's fully stops working so they can ask for "please please we must have another telescope up there because right now we have NONE!". And so they money come to rescue the acute situation.

    Makes me also wonder what the cost of a new space telescope will be when the current one reaches its end of life. If the cost of a service mission gets too high in comparison with sending up a new one and taking into account new capabilities it might just be that it pays off anyway.

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