Building the world's largest telescope in Chile

The world's largest telescope GMT is under construction in the Atamaca Desert, Chile, and is expected to be operational in 2024.

Illustration photo.

"A huge amount of work has been completed in the design phase, including the development of the giant mirrors, the most important part of the telescope. The biggest technical risks have been resolved, we are now looking forward to the stage of transporting the telescope's components to the top of the mountain," said Patrick McCarthy, Vice President of the GMT Group, responsible for the project.

Because of its advantages of dark, clear skies and little rainfall (only 5 mm of rainfall per year), the Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert was chosen as the location for the telescope. GMT will have seven primary mirrors larger than 8 meters wide with a diameter of 26 meters. The largest telescope currently is the Gran Telescopio Canarias, with a mirror diameter of more than 10 meters.

"If you look at the 400-year history of telescope development, from Galileo's first one, you'll see that every 30 to 40 years, the size of the telescope has doubled," McCarthy said.

"Adaptive Optics" technology will allow astronomers to change the shape of mirrors to compensate for distortion caused by the Earth's atmosphere, similar to the noise reduction process in microphones, according to NBC News.

GMT will help scientists observe planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, witness the formation of galaxies and stars, delve deeper into dark matter and energy, and take images at some wavelengths with a resolution 10 times higher than the Hubble telescope.

Eleven international founders have pledged $500 million to the project, from the United States, Australia, Brazil, South Korea and host country Chile.

According to VnExpress