Chilean mountaintop blasted for giant telescope [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Chilean mountaintop blasted for giant telescope
The Associated Press
Posted: 06/19/2014 12:39:16 PM PDT# Comments | Updated: about 3 hours ago

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Astronomers in Chile are blasting away the top of a mountain to install what they say will be the world's largest optical telescope.

The 9,800-foot (3,000 meter) Cerro Armazones mountain will be the new home of the European Extremely Large Telescope.

Thursday's blast is being overseen by officials at the European Southern Observatory in northern Chile.

Their ground-based telescope has a 128-foot (39-meter) mirror, and the astronomers are calling it "the world's biggest eye on the sky." They say it will help advance the study of planets around other stars, dark matter and supermassive black holes.

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25995574/chilean-mountaintop-blasted-giant-telescope

(Short article, no more at link.)

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World's Biggest Telescope to be Installed Atop Chile's Cerro Armazones
By Rahul R
June 19, 2014 13:09 BST


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VFTS 102, shown in the center, rotates more than 300 times faster than the Sun, astronomers found using the Very Large Telescope from the European Southern Observatory.ESO[/font]

The world's biggest telescope is all set to be installed atop the 3,000 metre high Cerro Armazones in Chile after blasting off a significant portion of the mountain's surface.

The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) project is the brainchild of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a Britain-based organisation.

According to a Guardian report, the blasting off of the mountain will take place at 2pm local time (7pm BST) on 19 June. This will be followed by month-long operations to clear the rubble after which work for installing the telescope will begin.

A massive, 2,500 tons of steel is expected to be used in building the E-ELT's most important mirror.

The world's biggest telescope is all set to be installed atop the 3,000 metre high Cerro Armazones in Chile after blasting off a significant portion of the mountain's surface.

The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) project is the brainchild of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a Britain-based organisation.

The E-ELT will aid stargazers and scientists in a big way. "I feel excited. We are opening a highway for the future knowledge of astronomy," Roberto Tamia is quoted as saying by the Guardian.

More:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/worlds-biggest-telescope-be-installed-atop-chiles-cerro-armazones-1453348

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Cerro Armazones Mountain



This is the installation at Paranal. They are all within the Atacama Desert. [/center]