E-ELT: The Biggest Eye On The Sky

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oi-Cara

By Cara

Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 11:09

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) Council has selected Cerro Armazones in Chile as the baseline site for the planned 42 meter European Extremely Large Telescope popularly known as E-ELT.

ESO's largest telescope is stationed at Cerro Armazones, at an altitude of 3060 meters in the central part of Chile"s Atacama Desert. It is about 130 kilometres south of Antofagasta town and about 20 kilometres from Cerro Paranal.

“This is an important milestone that allows us to finalize the baseline design of this very ambitious project, which will vastly advance astronomical knowledge," said Tim de Zeeuw, ESO"s Director General. “I thank the site selection team for the tremendous work they have done over the past few years," he added.

The decision on the E-ELT site is based on an extensive comparative meteorological investigation, which lasted several years.

ESO"s next step is to build an extremely large optical telescope (E-ELT) with a primary mirror 42 meters in diameter.

The E-ELT will be “the world"s biggest eye on the sky"- the only such telescope in the world. It will address many unsolved questions in astronomy and would eventually, revolutionize our perception of the Universe, much as Galileo"s telescope did 400 years ago