World's Largest Optical Telescope Construction To Begin In Chile This Year

With the funding for the project secured, the Construction of the world's largest telescope, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will commence early this year said European Southern Observatory (ESO) officials.

European Extremely Large Telescope, the world's largest ground-based optical telescope, will be built in Chile. The exact site of the E-ELT is the Cerro Armazones Mountain in the central part of Chile's Atacama Desert, where the preparation works are to begin soon. They said that this location was the best suited due to its optimum weather. It has around 320 nights with clear skies. E-ELT will be a joint collaboration between 15 countries.

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Panoramic View of the Cerro Armazones, Atacama Desert. Image Courtesy: ESO/S.Brunier

E-ELT’s primary mirror will be 138 feet (42 meters) wide. The mirrors of the other observatories are far smaller. For example the Keck Observatory in Hawaii’s mirror is 10m wide and that of Subaru telescope Hawaii is 8.2m wide.

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Architectural rendering of European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). Image Courtesy: ESO

The budget of ESO for the year 2012 has allotted some funds for the preparatory work like the laying of access roads to the site, construction effort for one of the five mirrors. "The E-ELT is starting to become reality," Construction of World's Largest Telescope Begins in 2012 | Space ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw. "However, with a project of this size it is expected that approval of the extra expenditure will take time. Council at the same time recognizes that preparatory work must start now in order for the project to be ready for a full start of construction in 2012."

The final sanction of the E-ELT project will be made by the ESO governing body in mid 2012. This project had been steadily progressing from 2009. Last October ESO entered into an agreement with Chilean government for the land to construct the telescope. And also a review confirmed that the project was feasible and can be completed within the estimated $1.43 billion (1.082 billion Euros). The E-ELT will be completed and made operational by early next Decade, said the ESO officials.