THE EUROPEAN EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPE ("E-ELT") PROJECT
BREAKING NEWS
ESO Council Gives Green Light to Detailed Study of the European Extremely Large Telescope (11 Dec. 2006)
European astronomy has received a tremendous boost with the decision from ESO's governing body to proceed with detailed studies for the European Extremely Large Telescope. This study, with a budget of 57 million euro, will make it possible to start, in three years time, the construction of an optical/infrared telescope with a diameter around 40m that will revolutionise ground-based astronomy. The chosen design is based on a revolutionary concept specially developed for a telescope of this size.
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BACKGROUND: OBSERVATIONAL ASTROPHYSICS, 2ND DECADE, 3RD MILLENNIUM AD
Modern astrophysics is tackling fundamental questions like: What is the origin and fate of our Universe? How were its basic blocks assembled? Are we alone? For that endeavour, it relies on the combined power of both space and ground-based Observatories covering the whole electromagnetic spectrum from gamma-rays to very low radio frequencies, with in addition the emergence of non-photonic means like neutrinos and gravitational waves. Some of the main new capabilities expected to be deployed before 2020 are shown in the thumbnails below.
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A major component in this world-wide strategy is to deploy huge ground-based optical-IR collectors with exquisite image quality, dubbed ELT for Extremely Large Telescopes. Two projects are being pursued in North-America (GMT, the Giant Magellan Telescope and TMT, the Thirty Meter Telescope). Europe's entry is provisionally dubbed European ELT or E-ELT in short, conducted by ESO with and for its community. It entered into its detailed design phase in early December 2006. These pages strive to keep you current on this exciting development, aiming at more than a factor ten improvement in collected light and image sharpness over the VLT Observatory.
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THE E-ELT PROJECT: SCIENCE CASE
The combination of unprecedented acuity and light gathering power of the future ELTs will not only provide unique images of objects at all scales, from solar and extra-solar planets to the first points of light in our Universe; it will also allow detailed spectral analysis, thus revealing their nature, motions and characteristics.
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THE E-ELT PROJECT: BASELINE REFERENCE DESIGN
As mandated by the ESO Council, the development of a Baseline Reference Design (BRD) for a 30 to 60m E-ELT started in December 2005 with extensive involvement from the ESO Community.
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THE E-ELT PROJECT: DETAILED DESIGN PHASE
Following ESO Council approval of the Baseline Reference Design, the 57 M€ Detailed Design Phase for the whole facility started in December 2006. While this landmark decision solely covers this 3-year period, it also paves the way for starting construction in early 2010, provided adequate funding is secured.
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IMAGE GALLERY
Our image gallery will soon contain…
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PUBLICATIONS
The E-ELT Project is producing publications
E-ELT HISTORY
The quest for an ELT started in Europe around 1996 with two conceptual studies, the 50-m Euro50 led by Lund University and the 100-m OWL led by ESO. A number of hard technical challenges were soon identified…
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LINKS
We are not alone in the Universe!
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