ESO Council selected Cerro Armazones as a baseline for the planned 42-meter European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which will start operation in 2018, was the Spanish island of La Palma in Canary Islands off West Africa. Chile won the right Monday to host the largest telescope ever built, called “the world’s largest eye in the sky” of the European astronomical consortium behind the project.
Telescopic, AOS primary mirror will measure 138 meters in diameter. The mirror will consist of 984 segments and will bring together 1915 times more light than the largest optical telescope, when he went back images to 15 times sharper than those beamed back from Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers say the telescope will provide new information on the nature of black holes, galaxy formation, dark matter and dark energy.
Various factors should be considered when selecting plants. Of course, Äúastronomical quality, AU in the atmosphere, such that the number of clear nights, the quantity of water vapor and, Äústability, AU in the atmosphere played a crucial role. However, other parameters should be taken into consideration as well, such as costs for construction and operation, and the operational and scientific synergy with other major facilities.
When completed, the unit will be “the world’s largest eye in the sky,” according to the ESO, who hopes that “solve many of the most pressing unsolved problems in astronomy.”
Chile said being selected to host the star-shaped stared facility was a “very important” steps to promote astronomical research of Chile. “This is a recognition of the quality of our territory and the public policy in Chile, under different administrations, which have attracted this type of investment to our country,” said Foreign Minister Fernando Schmidt said.
The Chilean desert region has a very low humidity and is also free from the storms that lash the Canary Islands. Moreover, said ESO’s Paranal Observatory, that a lot of ground infrastructure was already in place.
Chile’s government actively lobbying to host the ELT, agree to donate a large tract of land to ensure continued protection of the area against all negative influences, especially light pollution and mining, “said ESO.
