ELT telescope and dome construction starts
The first stone of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope has been laid on Cerro Armazones
at 3046 metres altitude in northern Chile.
The ELT will be the largest telescope of its kind ever built.
Its giant 39-metre main mirror will be housed in a 85-metre-diameter rotating dome that weighs 5000 tonnes.
The telescope has a unique five mirror optical design including a main mirror made of 798 segments.
The ELT will tackle some of our biggest scientific challenges…
...finding Earth 2.0, testing theories of fundamental physics,
and observing the assembly of the first galaxies in the Universe.
The ELT is targeted to see first light in 2024. Today is the dawn of a new era of astronomy.
#ItBegins #BiggestEyeOnTheSky
Transcribed by ESO; Translated by —