An artistic representation of the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in the Atacama Desert (Chile). The 39 meter ELT will be the largest optical / infrared telescope in the world.
Researchers have taken another important step in exploring the cosmic expanses. And the first step was the creation of the world's largest optical and infrared telescope. With a mirror whose diameter reaches 39 meters, the ELT justifies its status as the “largest”. Unlike many instruments, this will be an adaptive telescope and will be able to take atmospheric turbulence into account during observations.
To mark this step, they arranged a whole ceremony in the Paranal Observatory (Chile), located not far from the place where the future telescope will be located (the top of the Cerro Armasones mountain - 3046 m).
A great contribution was made by scientists at Oxford University who developed the HARMONI spectrograph. He can simultaneously get 4000 shots, each of which represents a different color. The visible and near infrared tools use adaptive optics to provide the clearest possible frames. HARMONI is an important novelty, because with its help you can more thoroughly understand the formation and evolutionary path of universe objects. We will be able to see much deeper and clearer, considering the stars and planets, both in our system and in other galaxies.
The event also created a time capsule, reflecting the full scale and ambition of the idea. A copy of the book with the original parameters of the telescope, as well as pictures of the project participants were included among the items. A hexagon was engraved on the lid of the capsule.
The launch of ELT is scheduled for 2024.
