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World biggest telescope in the making

Engineers are now gearing up to cast the first component of what is planned be the world’s largest telescope. When completed, its seven 8.4-metre mirrors will more than quadruple the power of today’s best observatories.

The design makes the telescope’s vision keener than it would be if all seven mirrors remained separate. It will have 10 times the resolving power of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Construction of the mirror’s mould has just been completed, and the oven is now undergoing a pre-firing before technicians carefully load it with 18,000 kilograms of borosilicate glass made from sand gathered on Florida’s Gulf coast.

The glass will be heated for about a week, starting around 18 July. When it reaches 1200°C, the glass will flow like honey into the intricate mould as the 90-tonne apparatus slowly spins. Then it will gradually cool down for about 12 weeks, spinning all the while.

The telescope, planned to be built in northern Chile, is expected to take a decade to complete if it receives the necessary funding. Today, the largest telescopes are the Keck Telescopes in Hawaii. Their 10-meter (32.8 feet) mirrors can gather even the extremely faint light of distant galaxies,

posted by: kyawoo at 20:25 | link | comments (1) |
astronomy

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