The segments will journey from France to Chile.
An inventive rendering of how the ESO’s Extraordinarily Giant Telescope will look on Cerro Armazones upon completion. Credit score: ESO
The primary 18 items for one of many European Southern Observatory’s Extraordinarily Giant Telescope (ELT) mirrors have began their 10,000 kilometer journey from France to Chile. It’s a key step on the best way to competing the ELT, in line with the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Every part is a part of the telescope’s major mirror, named the M1. As soon as full, the M1 will maintain 798 particular person hexagonal items. It’s thought of to be the world’s largest mirror ever constructed for an optical telescope at a whopping 39.3 meters in diameter. ESO stated the mirror will collect “tens of millions of times” more light than a human eye.
The ESO Extraordinarily Giant Telescope
As soon as full, ELT may have 5 mirrors to assist additional research the cosmos, together with our solar system, exoplanets, stars, galaxies, and black holes. ELT is scheduled to see its first technical mild in 2028. The telescope might be 20 km away from the Very Large Telescope on Cerro Armazones.
Polished to perfection
Safran Reosc, a French firm that worked on mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope, polished the 18 segments earlier than they had been despatched to the Atacama Desert. Sprucing the mirrors was not easy. Safran Reosc used a method referred to as “ion beam figuring.” A beam of positively charged ions slides throughout the mirror’s floor to take away any imperfections on the atomic degree.
Whereas solely 18 segments had been shipped out, extra are anticipated for supply. Final month, Safran Reosc started inspecting the mirror’s one centesimal piece.
After the mirrors arrive in Chile, each will obtain a skinny layer of reflective silver coating earlier than its saved till it’s time for installation- deliberate for 2027.
