Giant Magellan Telescope to be Set in Chile's Atacama Desert

If there was one positive attribute to the human race that you would point out to a visiting alien, it would have to be the desire to explore. Our history is a continuing stream of those who have pushed the boundaries of current knowledge and stepped in to the unknown beyond. One of our favorites is Ferdinand Magellan, who when he died in 1521 went down as the first individual to cross all the meridians of the globe after he traveled west past the Indonesia Spice Islands.

It was that pioneering spirit that helped Magellan to go down in our history books as an explorer, and inspired others to continue exploring.

Magellan has so inspired the exploration of our planet and our universe, that he is the name behind several discoveries – including the majestic Small and Large Magellanic Cloud – and a family of telescopes who all currently reside at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) Consortium have just announced that the latest addition to the family will be calling Las Campanas home as well.

“This decision represents a critical step towards realizing our goal of building the premier next -generation astronomical observatory,” said Dr. Wendy Freedman, leader of the GMT Board and director of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution, which operates Las Campanas.

The campus is well suited to telescopic observation with its high altitude, dry climate and dark skies all combining to create unparalleled seeing quality.

“The Giant Magellan Telescope represents the dawn of a new age of astronomical exploration,” stated Dr. Charles Alcock, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “As telescopes get larger, we are able to see fainter, farther, and with more clarity than ever before. We can only predict a fraction of the scientific discoveries that will be made using this enormous telescope and the new insights into the universe that we will gain.”

Scheduled for completion in 2016, the GMT will provide light-gathering power four times that of the current most powerful telescopes. It will consist of seven, 8.4-meter "primary" mirrors, for a total telescope diameter of 24.5 metres (80 feet). The design, known as an “off-axis”, looks somewhat like a flower with a central mirror and outlying mirrors as petals. There has never been one as large as this.

The first mirror began construction back in July of 2005 at Steward Observatory in Tucson and involves a complicated process that takes a total of fourteen weeks. However the polishing process still continues, and when it is completed in 2009, it will be smooth to an accuracy of 1 millionth of an inch.

With such an advanced piece of telescopic machinery, scientists will be able to look further, see fainter objects, and peer back further in to the dusts of time. New avenues of scientific exploration will open thanks to its powerful reach, and will help us understand the origin and evolution of planetary systems beyond our own, help us explore the properties of dark matter and dark energy in the cosmos and allow us to witness the birth of stars, galaxies and black holes.

To put all of this information in to perspective, especially for those of us who are fans of the Hubble Space telescope imagery, the GMT will provide images that are ten times sharper. Peering in to the distance indeed…

Posted by Josh Hill.