Tech: New Giant Telescope “E-ELT” Being Built In Chilie

With space exploration being a huge part of society, Chile is getting ready to bast the top off of a 10,000 ft tall mountain to make way for the worlds largest optical and infrared telescope called E-ELT or European-Extremely Large Telescope. The telescope will be able to let astronomers see farther into space and in more detail then ever before. The location was chose because it has near perfect conditions for viewing into space. They expect construction to be completed in under 10 years and cost over 10 billion euros.

How the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will work

1. 39.3m-wide primary mirror (M1) is made up of almost 800 segments
2. M2 is 4.2m wide and hangs upside down. It will weigh less than 12t
3. 3.8m-wide M3 sits in a hole in M1. M3 moves with M2 and M4 to focus
4. 2.4m-wide M4 can deform its shape to remove twinkling in stars
5. M5 is 2.6m x 2.1m. It stabilises the light on to the instrument detectors
6. Lasers make artificial stars on the sky to help correct the imaging
7. E-ELT will have two instrument decks; each deck to hold three units
8. The telescope will be sensitive to visible and near-infrared light

Source:

BBC