In the course of Chile’s Atacama desert, there’s a lot of exercise as development on the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) remains to be underway, with cranes serving to to maneuver items in place.
What’s it?
The ELT is the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) $1.4 billion undertaking to create the next-generation observatory.
Right here, the world’s largest optical telescope will scan the sky with a main segmented mirror stretching 128 ft (39 meters) in diameter, roughly 4 occasions bigger than any present ground-based optical telescope. The big mirror won’t solely enable the telescope to gather extra mild, however according to the ESO, the telescope may even present pictures 15 occasions sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.
The place is it?
The ELT is being inbuilt Chile’s Cerro Armazones, a mountaintop within the Atacama desert.
Why is it superb?
In April 2025, crews on the ELT celebrated the telescope’s topping-out or roofing ceremony, because the roof was raised over the dome of the telescope. Flags from each the ESO and Chile have been positioned on the scaffolding over the roof.
In Chilean custom, this ceremony is named Tijerales, and was celebrated on April 16, 2025 with a standard barbeque for the crew. The ceremony was additionally livestreamed to ESO’s headquarters in Garching, Germany, bringing collectively a global group enthusiastic about the way forward for astronomy.
Wish to be taught extra?
You possibly can learn extra concerning the Extremely Large Telescope and different telescopes in Chile.