In the Atacama Desert in Chile, one of the most powerful astronomical instruments in the world, the ELT is a giant optical telescope that produces images 15 times clearer than the best current instruments.
The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the most powerful optical instrument ever built that will greatly increase observing power for astronomers, is slowly emerging from Earth in northern Chile, one of the best places to look at the stars, according to sciencesetavenir.
Capacity multiplied by 5000
This new “eyes on the sky”, which from 2027 will be added to the powerful monitoring tools already in service in the Atacama Desert, will make it possible to multiply the current observing capacity by 5,000, taking a look at what was hitherto unknown to answer questions that do not exist. Still open about the origins of the universe.
′′ THE WORLD'S BIGGEST TELESCOPE "
The structure that will house the future mega terrestrial ELT (Extremely Large Telescope), which is located at Cerro Armazones in Atacama(Chile).
The ELT mirror will be diameter of 39 m and the building where it will be housed will be 74 m high. pic.twitter.com/7mSVSQgBo1— Vibhu Vashisth 🇮🇳 (@Indic_Vibhu) December 13, 2021
“There are certain scientific questions that we would like to answer and these questions lead to the need for technology that helps us answer them,” Chilean astronomer Luis Chavarria of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) told AFP. “Astronomy always works within the limits of technology, within the limits of technology.” Discovery, within the limits of all that these wonderful tools can provide.”
The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is currently under construction at the top of Cerro Armazones in the Chilean Atacama Desert https://t.co/nLYwjPapbB pic.twitter.com/RrX4WbPqBZ
— Mikko Tuomi @mustapipa@scicomm.xyz (@mustapipa) April 11, 2022
Current observing instruments, such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT) – the most powerful instrument currently operating – and ALMA, the world’s largest radio telescope, both located in northern Chile, are able to answer the questions scientists were asking themselves three decades ago. But the limits of knowledge have receded, forcing the construction of more efficient instruments, such as the ELT, which will be installed at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters on the Armazones Hill, about twenty kilometers from the ESO-owned VLT in the middle of the desert.
For the past few months we've been working on @ESO's new website for the 40m Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) have a look: https://t.co/gVtW5gIa1m
Also have a look in https://t.co/Lq4B8okBOG for many of the rendering I made (@maxon3d and @redshift3d) pic.twitter.com/sy55jDlfD1
— Luis Calçada (@_Luis_Calcada) January 15, 2021