In the global race to put into service giant terrestrial telescopes dedicated to astronomical observation, theEuropean Southern ObservatoryEuropean Southern Observatory (ESO) stands out with its ELT telescope project (Extremely Large TelescopeExtremely Large Telescope)), which represents the largest terrestrial telescope ever built, equipped with a 39-meter segmented mirror. ESO plans to commission this giant observatory atautumnautumn 2028, thus consolidating its leading position in the field of astronomy.
The largest telescope ever built on Earth promises “a technological leap”!
Significantly transform our understanding of the Universe
Despite several giant telescope projects, all of which exceed a billion budget, there is obviously room for several large instruments such as the giant American observatories Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile and Thirty Meter Telescopewhose constructionconstruction has been on hold for years due to local opposition at Mauna Kea (Hawaii), with each observatory offering its own unique properties and features.
However, the goal of this race is to be the first to exploit the revolutionary capabilities of these telescopes. The expected scientific advances could significantly reshape our understanding of the Universe and open new horizons in several areas of astronomy.
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The future giant American telescopes, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) with a diameter of 25.4 meters and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) of 30 meters in diameter, are competing to receive financial support from the United States National Science Foundation. An official announcement revealing the selected project is planned for this fall.
THE Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), whose construction is 40% complete, could be the second giant telescope to be commissioned by 2035, several years after the European ELT. This future telescope, whose architecture is very different from the European ELT and its segmented mirror of 39 meters, will use a set of six mirrors of 8.4 meters in diameter, forming a mirror of 25.4 meters, has just crossed an important step.
One of the largest mechanized buildings ever built
A few days ago, the consortium of Giant Magellan Telescope announced the successful completion of the final design review of the enclosure that will house this telescope on the site of the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. This imposing structure, 65 meters high, is among the largest mechanized buildings ever constructed, representing a feat of precision engineering. With a mass of nearly 5,000 metric tons, it will be capable of making a complete rotation in four minutes and will be equipped with doorsdoors shutters 46 meters high, allowing the telescope mirrors to observe the sky. This enclosure will be built by Idom, a renowned engineering and architecture firm based in Spain which has worked on several terrestrial telescope projects, including that of the ELT dome.
This enclosure will have to protect the giant mirrors of the telescope against earthquakeearthquake and the extreme weather conditions specific to the Chilean site of the Las Campanas observatory (temperature and speedspeed of windwind). Concretely, the architecture of this building is designed to resist and protect the telescope and its instruments from the strongest earthquakes (up to one magnitudemagnitude of 8) expected during the durationduration life of 50 years of the observatory while limiting operational interruptions due to more frequent but less intense seismic shocks.
Finally, this enclosure will take into account the extreme weather conditions of the Las Campanas site with the use of a climate control system.airair robust environment to prevent the harmful effects of strong winds and temperature variations on the six giant mirrors of the telescope, thus risking degrading their performance and image quality.
