The European Extremely Large Telescope is, indeed, extremely large at 39 meters across. (credit: ESO)
An astronomy organization consisting of 15 European countries, as well as Chile and Brazil, has signed a $450 million contract to move forward with the construction of a large dome and structure to support a massive optical telescope that will have a 39-meter wide main mirror.
The European Southern Observatory said the contract keeps it on track to begin observing the night sky with its European Extremely Large Telescope (EELT) as early as 2024. The telescope will operate from a 3,000-meter mountaintop site in northern Chile. The agency said that this is the most expensive contract ever awarded by ESO and the largest contract ever in ground-based astronomy. However, it represents only a fraction of the telescope's overall multi-billion dollar cost.
The largest optical telescopes in the world today are only about 10 meters in diameter. The European instrument is part of a new generation of much larger telescopes being built to extend the ability of astronomers to peer back further into the history of the universe, when the first stars and galaxies formed. The newly possible observations may also elucidate the nature of dark matter and dark energy and could potentially sniff out the signatures of life in the atmospheres of exoplanets. As such, there is a tremendous race to reach first light and begin using these large instruments. Nobel Prizes await.
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