World's Largest Giant Telescope Unveiled in Spain!!

**rk4u** · 08-10-2009 04:56 PM

Crowds gathered a few days ago on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands--a Spanish territory--to watch Spanish King Juan Carlos inaugurate the U.S. $180-million GTC, which is co-owned by Spain, Mexico, and the University of Florida in the U.S.

A low-hanging sun brightens the fields around the dome of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the latest addition to the handful of Earth-based optical telescopes designed to study the heavens.

Boasting a segmented mirror 34 feet (10.4 meters) wide, the GTC is the largest telescope of its kind in the world--for now. Three larger telescopes are slated for completion in 2018: The Thirty Meter Telescope, with its 90-foot (30-meter) mirror, is planned for the top of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano, while the 80-foot (24.5-meter) Giant Magellan Telescope will be built in the mountains of Las Campanas, Chile. The European Extremely Large Telescope, which currently doesn't have a site selected, will boast an unprecedented 137.7-foot (42-meter) primary mirror.

Like a high-tech pearl on the half-shell, the GTC is framed by its protective dome surrounded by a sea of nighttime clouds. The new observatory--inaugurated on July 31, 2009--sits 7,874 feet (2,400 meters) above sea level on the Roque de los Muchachos, the highest point on the tiny island of La Palma, the northwesternmost member of the Canary Islands (see map). The site has little light pollution, mostly cloud-free skies, and a thin atmosphere, making it ideal for optical and infrared astronomy.

An open slot in the telescope's dome exposes the top of the hexagonal steel structure that holds the GTC's mirrors. In addition to preventing buildup on the surface of the observatory's sensitive mirrors, the large dome protects the telescope from wind turbulence and other vibrations that can affect image quality.

A camera fitted with a fish-eye lens peers into the steel frame holding the GTC's shiny main mirror.

The mirror is made of 36 smaller hexagonal mirrors that fit together like a honeybee's comb. That's because a single mirror 34 feet (10.4 meters) wide would be so heavy that its surface would deform, skewing the light from distant objects and making the data virtually useless. Instead, the smaller mirrors can be carefully calibrated so that they act as one seamless light collector.

Cables feed into the steel structure supporting the GTC's system of mirrors in a close-up.

In addition to solving the mirror's weight problem, having many smaller segments allows the GTC to practice a relatively new observing technique called adaptive optics. Each of the 36 small mirrors can be moved and ever-so-slightly reshaped thousands of times a second to correct for the blurring effect Earth's atmosphere has on light from distant objects. This technique combined with the size of its main mirror should allow the GTC to "see" black holes and galaxies millions of light-years away in unprecedented detail.

A worker gazes up at the steel structure housing the GTC's mirrors. The observatory's primary mirror was completed in April 2009, and a team from the University of Florida made some of the first scientific observations with the telescope in May.

Astronomer Eric Ford and colleagues used the GTC to study a star known to have an orbiting planet about the size of Jupiter. The team hopes analysis of the data will help scientists understand how planets contract in size as their stars age. Overall, project managers hope the new telescope will be instrumental in studying the early universe and the births and deaths of galaxies, stars, and planets, as well as in discovering new planets outside our solar system.

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