Groundbreaking for the Giant Magellan Telescope began with a ceremony on the clear moonless evening of November 11 at Las Campanas Observatory in central Chile.
This event marks the official start of construction for what will become the world's most powerful optical observatory in the early 2020's.[1] Ultimately the telescope will consist of seven 8.4 meter mirrors forming a single optical surface over 24 meters in diameter with a resolving power 10 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope. The GMT will be the first of several next-generation telescopes that are essentially guaranteed to challenge our understanding of the universe.
Las Campanas, located in the southern Atacama Desert in the Chilean Andes, is one of the best places in the world for astronomy. The Giant Magellan Telescope Organization is a consortium of 11 governments, organizations, and universities.
The science case for the GMT is a drool-worthy cornucopia of astrophysics, including formation of stars and planetary systems, properties of exoplanets (including their atmospheres), chemical evolution in stellar populations, dark matter and dark energy (including synergy with the LSST), galaxy formation and evolution, and the first light and reionization of the universe. The potential for observing non-equilibrium chemistry in extrasolar planetary atmospheres is pretty darned exciting with consequences that could reach beyond astrophysics to religion, philosophy, and policy.
The future of astronomy is very bright.
[1] In addition to the 24m GMT, the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii (by an International Consortium) is planned for 2022 and the European Extremely Large Telescope in Chile (by the European Southern Observatory) is planned for 2024 at 39 meters across. Also covered at Ars Technica -Ed.
Related Stories
From Nature.com:
Hawaii's supreme court has ruled that the construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on top of the mountain Mauna Kea is invalid. The 2 December decision is a major blow to the international consortium backing the US$1.5-billion telescope, and a win for the Native Hawaiians who have protested against its construction on what they regard as a sacred summit.
And the top reddit comment on the article, which I found neatly summed up the situation.
I spent time in Hawaii and talked to locals that were born and raised there about this issue. Its polarizing.
People against it brought up the need for spirituality and respect for the Hawaiian culture lost over hundred of years of Western influence.
Argument for the telescope, however, claimed that building it would do nothing but respect their history. How did the ancient Hawaiians get to the island? They used the stars. It was "in their blood" to understand the heavens. Most of the those complaining are young disenfranchised people struggling in one of the crappiest economies in America.
Of course this could be a generalization based on second hand observation.
As for me, as big as these telescopes are, they look like ants on top of these massive volcanoes. Ruining the scenery is nonsense.
We covered the Groundbreaking for World's Largest Telescope nearly a month ago.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by dogvomit on Friday November 13 2015, @02:08PM
I'd like to think the lack of discussion is more due to this story posting in the middle of the night than lack of interest in the future of astronomy. With three new big telescopes coming on line in the next decade, astronomy really is building excitement. I'm obviously partial to the GMT because its science case seems broader than the EELT and I'm worried TMT's problems will snowball. From the way it looks and the astronomers I've spoken with I wouldn't be surprised if TMT eventually has to move off Hawaii.
It's a bit off topic, but here's a story from the groundbreaking ceremony. I was incredibly fortunate to be invited to this event, which concluded with one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
Just a couple of kilometers away from the GMT site are the twin Magellan telescopes [carnegiescience.edu]. These telescopes are both 6.5 meter aperture and have a large number of instruments that astronomers can use, with fairly easy switching between instruments. Wednesday night the telescope staff did something extremely rare. They fitted the Clay telescope with an actual eyepiece and all 190 guests were allowed to look through this 6.5 meter telescope! (The president of Chile got to go first, of course.) For this event, the telescope was trained on the saturn nebula [wikipedia.org] and with this much aperture the colors were quite striking even to human eyes.
One of the astronomers told me that the number of people who have actually looked through such a telescope doubled night before last.
—G
(Score: 2) by dx3bydt3 on Friday November 13 2015, @10:44PM
Pure science stories in general don't tend to generate that many comments I've noticed. Perhaps it's because there are fewer people knowledgeable in the specific fields around to contribute to the discussion.
The largest telescope I've ever looked through is only a 10" aperture. It must have been one hell of an experience to look through a 6.5m aperture scope.
With the advancements in adaptive optics and an enormous aperture this scope, and the others you mentioned, are sure to yield some excellent advancements in our understanding of the universe.
Upon reading of the methods for fabricating the mirrors I wonder if they had to make a spin casting setup the size of the finished aperture? That is, if they were to spin each segment independently when cast, they'd each be an independent parabola. The details on the GMT site indicate that the outer segments are highly asymmetric, implying that they'd be forming a part of the larger parabola. Grinding a mirror to 1/20 the wavelength of visible light is impressive enough on such large mirrors, but aligning the independent segments must be quite a challenge as well.
(Score: 1) by OrugTor on Friday November 13 2015, @04:22PM
Challenge our understanding of the universe? We don't have enough understanding to challenge, given dark matter, dark energy, expansion etc. Also, I'm a little sceptical about the reliability of adaptive optics for such large apertures. Can someone out there speak to this?
Unrelatedly, what's with the naming conventions for telescopes (and other scientific installations)? Giant Telescope, Extrememy Large Telescope - what's next, the Really Really Really Large Telescope?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday November 13 2015, @05:26PM
Somewhat Humongously Immense Telescope is favorite, though Bazillion-Radius Advanced Telescope was a contender.
You'd think they'd be more creative given the lack of distractions atop the Atacama, but actually they're really tired of naming stuff all day long...
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday November 15 2015, @01:18PM
It's really great that these giant telescopes are being built which will have much improved light-collecting power and resolving power. Our picture of the universe is so much clearer than 20 years ago when things like adaptive optics where in their infancy and the largest telescopes were much smaller,
However, the biggest advances will be made by space-based telescopes which can see in all regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The Earth's atmosphere only lets through a tiny band (in the visible spectrum) of what's available.
Something to really look forward to is the ESA PLATO [esa.int] missing, which is a giant space telescope designed to study extra-solar planets.
There are many cool objects only visible in the infrared that can't bee seen from the ground, too. Space telescopes using liquid gas coolant have been used for infrared astronomy, but they have a very limited lifetime since the gas runs out!
Some astronomy of X-rays and gamma rays can be carried out using high-flying aircraft and balloons, but telescopes in earth orbit are far better.
I wish we had a Moon base!
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].