European Southern Observatory to build world’s largest telescope in ChileJune 13, 2012 - 18:22 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - A European project to build the largest optical telescope on Earth took a big step closer to becoming reality Monday (June 11), when final approval came from the scientific consortium backing the new observatory, Space.com reported. Plans for the mega-telescope, appropriately called the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), were approved by the governing council of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), officials announced Monday. "This is an excellent outcome and a great day for ESO," ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw said in a statement. "We can now move forward on schedule with this giant project." The E-ELT will be a 129-foot (39-meter) segmented-mirror telescope sited atop a mountain called Cerro Armazones in northern Chile, close to ESO’s Paranal Observatory. It will be many times more sensitive than any other instrument of its kind, researchers said. The huge telescope will collect at least 12 times more light than today's largest optical telescopes, allowing astronomers to probe a variety of high-priority cosmic questions. Scientists will use it to help search for habitable alien planets, for example, and to study the nature and distribution of dark matter and dark energy, the mysterious stuff thought to make up most of our universe but which astronomers have yet to detect directly. "The telescope is set to revolutionize optical and infrared astronomy," said Isobel Hook of the University of Oxford, the United Kingdom's E-ELT project scientist, in a statement. "Its unique combination of sharp imaging and huge light collecting area will allow us to observe some of the most exciting phenomena in the universe in much better detail." The E-ELT project is not quite ready to break ground yet, however. Construction cannot begin until provisional votes from four more of the ESO's 15 member states have been confirmed and 90 percent of the required funding has been secured, officials said. Building the E-ELT is expected to cost 1.083 billion euros, or roughly $1.35 billion at current exchange rates. ESO officials have said that construction is expected to begin sometime this year, with the telescope becoming operational in the early 2020s. Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | About 173 million drams and more than 30 beneficiary funds. "The Power of One Dram" is 4 years old In June 2020, the exclusive joint corporate social responsibility initiative of Idram and IDBank "The Power of One Dram" was launched. CSTO budget “to be adjusted due to Yerevan’s non-payment of contributions” The CSTO budget for the current year requires adjustments due to the refusal of Yerevan to pay their share of contributions. Russia sends note of protest to Armenia over envoy’s trip to Ukraine’s Bucha Russia has sent a note of protest to Armenia over the visit of Vladimir Karapetyan and Tigran Ter-Margaryan to Bucha. Armenia: Protesters march to parliament, some spend the night on street The protesters did not disperse despite heavy rain that began at around 2 a.m. local time. |