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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.
(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.