ESO approves plans for world's largest telescope
Posted: Tue, Jun 12, 2012, 6:46 AM ET (1046 GMT)
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) gave the green light Monday to plans to build a telescope nearly 40 meters across in Chile. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will be located in northern Chile, close to ESO's existing Paranal Observatory, and feature a primary mirror 39.3 meters in diameter. That would give the telescope over 15 times the light-gathering power of each of the twin 10-meter Keck Observatory telescopes. Formal work on the E-ELT will not begin, though, until four ESO member states that voted for the telescope confirm their approvals with national authorities, and until ESO raises at least 90 percent of the estimated €1.1 billion (US$1.4 billion) needed to build the observatory.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) gave the green light Monday to plans to build a telescope nearly 40 meters across in Chile. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will be located in northern Chile, close to ESO's existing Paranal Observatory, and feature a primary mirror 39.3 meters in diameter. That would give the telescope over 15 times the light-gathering power of each of the twin 10-meter Keck Observatory telescopes. Formal work on the E-ELT will not begin, though, until four ESO member states that voted for the telescope confirm their approvals with national authorities, and until ESO raises at least 90 percent of the estimated €1.1 billion (US$1.4 billion) needed to build the observatory.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Monday, January 19
Proba-3: our eyes on the Sun’s inner corona
ESA — 6:10 am ET (1110 GMT) SpaceX successfully launches Falcon 9 rocket into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral
WESH-TV Orlando — 6:07 am ET (1107 GMT) Small businesses in Higashiosaka launch crowdfunding campaign for lunar exploration robot
Independent Online — 6:06 am ET (1106 GMT) Polish Lawmakers Request Military to Establish Suborbital Spaceport
Militarnyi — 6:03 am ET (1103 GMT) ISRO was set to move on to a new era. PSLV failure has stalled India’s space policy
ThePrint (India) — 6:00 am ET (1100 GMT) |
