european extremely large telescope sited in chilean atacama desert

european extremely large telescope sited in chilean atacama desert
images courtesy of ESO

the european southern observatory (ESO) has given the green light to progress the construction of the european ‘extremely large telescope’ (E-ELT) to the next phase. its assembly was approved back in june 2012 under the contract conditions that until 90% of the project was funded, initial developments were limited to work that cost less than two million euros. after the groundbreaking ceremony and site leveling of cerro armazones in the chilean atacama desert – 20 km the ESO’s very large telescope, the 39 meter aperture optical and infrared telescope’s domed and main structure aims to be placed within the next year.

the E-ELT will be the largest telescope in ESO’s history

‘the decision taken by council means that the telescope can now be built, and that major industrial construction work for the E-ELT is now funded and can proceed according to plan. there is already a lot of progress in chile on the summit of armazones and the next few years will be very exciting,’ said tim de zeeuw, ESO’s director general.

the 1083 million euro built in 2012 prices, ‘E-ELT’ will enable scientific discoveries in the fields of exoplanets, stellar composition of nearby galaxies and the deep universe. after the accomplishment of finishing this phase of development, further parts such as the adaptive optics system, innermost five rings of segments of the main mirror and a spare of primary mirror segments, are aimed to be subsidized in order to to provide more efficient telescope operation in the future.

the progress of work on the cerro armazones site (top left)