The Biggest Telescope In The World Is Now Officially Under Construction

The ELT is set to be the biggest telescope ever built in the world yet and should become operational in 2024.

The future biggest telescope in the world, named the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), is now officially under construction as work on the device took off on May 26 in northern Chile. ESO or the European Southern Observatory expects to have it ready and functional sometime in 2024.

The ELT Will Be the As Yet Biggest Telescope in the World

The ELT will be housed by an 85-meter rotating dome, which started being raised near the Paranal Observatory. This marks the final leg of its journey, which began some 12 years ago. Over them, specialists planned and consulted as to the best methods and devices for raising this massive structure.

The telescope will be both infrared and optical. It will come with a primary mirror measuring coming very close to 128 feet. This will actually be composed of 798 smaller ones. Each will be shaped like a hexagon and about 2 inches thick. In total, they will have a light-collecting zone of 978 square meters.

The biggest telescope yet will be equipped with four major instruments. These are the HARMONI (High Angular Resolution Monolithic Optical and Near-infrared Integral field spectrograph) and the METIS (Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph). It will also come with the MAORY (Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics Relay for the ELT) and the MICADO (Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations).

According to an ESO statement from Friday, it will be the “biggest eye” pointed towards the sky yet. Authorities also consider that it could help revolutionize our understanding and perception of the Universe.

“The ELT will produce discoveries that we simply cannot imagine today, and it will surely inspire numerous people around the world to think about science, technology and our place in the universe,” states Tim de Zeeuw, the ESO general director.

It could help offer new data on dark matter and dark energy. Also, it could bring new information on Earth-like exoplanets by probing them for signs of life. These are also just a few examples of the proposed uses of the ELT.

Image Source: Wikimedia

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Roxanne Briean

I am a geek, a gamer and a writer. I have always been fascinated with the online community. At the moment I work as a full-time writer and study interior design. When I'm not scouring the net in search of interesting new gadgets and software I spend my time in MOBAs or drawing.