Mfarhanonline Social Media News: A new Big Bang occurred last Friday — albeit not the same magnitude as the original. That’s what project crews in the Chilean Andes are calling last Friday’s detonation of Las Campanas Peak to make way for the construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope. Building has commenced on the massive telescope, which will be the largest telescope in the world when finished in 2019. It will feature seven giant mirrors, more than 28 feet in diameter, and be enclosed in a 200-foot tall structure. Adaptive optics will allow the telescope to capture photos of far-away planets orbiting their stars with less glare than other telescopes, and give astronomers the chance to peer into deep space. “The telescope will be used by scientists at our partner institutions,” Patrick McCarthy, director at GMTO (Giant Magellan Telescope Organization) tells Mfarhanonline . “Some of the nights will go to small projects led by one person, others will go to ‘key’ projects that address big questions line exoplanet atmospheres, dark energy, dark matter and so on.” The GMT will have a larger field of view and collecting area than any other telescopes currently under construction, he added. “Contrary to popular lore, telescopes do not benefit astronomers by magnifying distant objects,” notes a GMTO report. “Rather they allow us to both collect far more light than is possible with the unaided eye and to resolve finer details. “The light-gathering power of a telescope is determined by its collecting area and grows as the square of the telescope diameter, while the angular resolving power is determined by the number of wavelengths of light that span the aperture and is thus proportional to the diameter.” Currently, there are 32 people in the core project team, but there are approxima! tely ano ther 50 other people working on the project at GMTO’s partner institutions. The telescope project began in 2004-2005, McCarthy said, with work beginning in 2006. The group started the GMTO nonprofit corporation in 2010. The Chilean Andes is a very dry mountain range, making the skies clear for year-round star watching. “For the first time we have definitive evidence that the Milky Way galaxy is teaming with planetary systems , some like our own solar system, others quite exotic by comparison ,” the GMTO report says. “We have also learned that the matter that makes up the Earth, stars and other planets is a mere 4% of the total stuff of the Universe – the rest (96%!) is comprised of dark matter and an unknown "dark" energy. “Telescopes offer a unique way to explore not only the universe as it is today, but to see back to the dawn of time and the formation of the first stars, galaxies and black holes.” Image courtesy of GMTO More About: chile , Giant Magellan Telescope , Telescope Social Media reviews series maintain by Mayya
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