UK commits £88 mn for the world’s largest telescope

The British government is taking a leading role in the construction of the world's largest telescope in Chile for which it is contributing £88 million ($132 million).

The project, European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), is the world's biggest eye on the sky, and is being built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a consortium comprising 14 European nations and Brazil, at a total cost over £900 million.

The large telescope will enable astronomers to explore much larger distances in the universe to detect the light from the first-formed galaxies, and to study planets and other celestial objects at a very high resolution, compared to the existing telescopes.

Extremely large telescopes are considered worldwide as one of the highest priorities in ground-based astronomy, as they would help vastly advance astrophysical knowledge, allowing detailed studies of subjects including planets around other stars, the first objects in the Universe, super-massive black holes, and the nature and distribution of the dark matter and dark energy which dominate the Universe.

ESO, which already operates three world-class observatories in Chile including the world's most-advanced visible-light astronomical observatory, approved the giant project last June, pending confirmation of 'referendum' votes.

The huge 39.3-metre telescope will be sited on the Cerro Armazones mountain range at a height of around 3,000 metres, in the centre part of Atacama Desert in northern Chile, an area that is already home to some of the world's largest telescopes. 

The new telescope, when it becomes operational in 2023, will collect more light than all of the existing telescopes ever built, put together.

The sophisticated instrumentation for the telescope is being designed with active involvement of British agencies, which will ultimately provide the means for observations of the faintest planets, stars, and galaxies that are well beyond the reach of existing telescopes.

The main mirror of the telescope will be made up of 800 hexagonal mirrors, each 1.4-metre in size, all of which need to be controlled independently. Another mirror, 2.5-metre across, will correct for the turbulence of the atmosphere by changing its shape over 1,000 times per second.

By gathering 15 times more light than the current largest optical telescopes, it will help to substantially enhance our knowledge and understanding of the solar system, including identify areas where life might exist and also the nature and distribution of massive black holes, which are currently not directly observed or understood.

British science minister David Willetts said, ''This significant investment reaffirms the government's commitment to cutting edge science. It will ensure the UK plays a leading role in a groundbreaking international project and our world-class research base has access to the latest equipment.''

He further stated that the country's investment in the project could also help secure industrial contracts, including manufacture of some or all of the telescopic mirror segments that could be worth up to £100 million.